§3174 Judicial Emergency and Implementation

Summary

Lets a district’s chief judge ask the circuit’s judicial council to suspend the time limits in section 3161(c) when the court calendar is too crowded and available resources are already being used well. The chief judge must get the planning group’s advice first. The council will review the district’s capacity and the availability of visiting judges and suggest fixes. If no reasonable fix exists, the council can approve a suspension up to one year for cases with indictments or informations filed during that year. The arrest-to-indictment deadlines in section 3161(b) and the penalties in section 3162 stay in force. The time from indictment to trial may not be extended beyond one hundred and eighty days. Cases of people held only because they are waiting for trial are not changed. Before July 1, 1980, a chief judge who, with the planning group’s agreement, thinks the district is ready to use section 3162 in full may apply to implement it and must show the district’s compliance for the prior twelve-calendar-month period and give a schedule and notice plan. The council will approve or return the application with reasons. Any council approval must be sent within ten days to the Director of the Administrative Office with the application and a detailed report. The Director must send that report to Congress and the Judicial Conference within ten days. No new suspension may be granted within six months after a prior suspension ends without Congress’s approval, except where a prior suspension was in effect on the date the Speedy Trial Act Amendments Act of 1979 was enacted. If urgently needed, the chief judge may order a suspension for up to thirty days but must apply to the judicial council within ten days.