7 Tales of Bureaucracy
After completing that analysis, we sent a formal audit over to the Administrative Office of the Courts with a carbon copy to the judge who chairs the Judicial Conference Rules Committee. In addition to a printed list, they got a DVD that let them compare the redacted to the un-redacted version of 2,000 offending documents.
You'd think this was pretty shocking evidence, but the Administrative Office of the Courts ignored the preliminary audit, then ignored the final audit, then continued to ignore us. Finally, over the Christmas holidays in 2008, letters went to the Chief Judges of 30 district courts.
On the top of those letters—in big red type—were the words "Third and Final Notice." The letters said we had sent a preliminary audit to the Administrative Office and a final audit to the Administrative Office, and of course, these letters said, it goes without saying that the Administrative Office had promptly notified the judges of these very serious problems, since of course they didn't want to be breaking the law.
Needless to say, the judges hadn't heard about this situation, and you have to swallow real hard before you send Chief Judges of U.S. District Courts letters saying "Third and Final Notice," but you know what ... judges are reasonable people. They got these letters, their clerks checked them out, and we started getting letters back saying in effect "you're right, thanks, we'll take steps."
As a result of those audits, the Senate sent a strongly worded letter to the Administrative Office asking them why they weren't obeying the law. The judge who chairs the
