Opinion ID: 1196201
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 11

Heading: Unless There Is An On- or Off-The-Record Waiver By Counseled Claimants of An Adversarial Fee-Quantum Hearing, Copies of Joint-Petition Approval Orders Must Be Mailed To Represented Claimants As Well As To Their Lawyers. [38]

Text: ¶ 16 We glean from the record that the trial tribunal does not mail copies of its joint-petition approval orders either to the unrepresented parties or to counsel of record. This court is free to take judicial notice of any jurisdiction-impacting feature of internal operations in a judicial institution that, by the command of § 6, [39] stands as its administrative subordinate. ¶ 17 Unless an on- or off-the-record waiver of an adversarial fee-quantum hearing is present, orders approving joint-petition settlements must be mailed not only to counsel of record but also to every represented claimant. [40] A claimant's current mailing address should be provided for the record through counsel's pre-approval examination. The current forms for a joint petition and for an order approving settlement should be amended to includein the former documentthat the claimant has tendered a waiver of his right to a hearing on the fee-quantum issue (or requested a hearing on that issue) and that the claimant has been fully informed of his rights. The revised order form should make reference to the waiver's tender and set out that it was either approved by the court or rejected by the claimant. In the latter case the trial tribunal (1) may at once proceed to hear and decide the dispute over the amount to be awarded unless (2) a fully informed claimant requests a deferred fee-quantum hearing, in which event there should be an order setting the fee issue for a post-settlement hearing.