Just to Clarify

I received some email from non-law types, asking me a couple questions about my last post. I admit that it is easy for me now to think only in legal terms, forgetting that they may not be familiar to all. Sorry! Anyway, here's the answers:

What does it mean to "submit on the ticket"?

I've never heard an official explanation for this, but basically, when you are in court, and the judge asks your opinion about something, and you want to say that you agree with a certain document (ticket, probation report, plea agreement, etc.), you say that you "submit on" that, meaning whatever that says is what you want to submit to the judge and have him/her to do.

I had already forgotten that the phrase struck me as odd when I first started this internship because I quickly saw how it was being used.

What is a non-magistrate judge?

Let's work backwards. A magistrate judge is appointed for a term of 8 years, by other judges in the federal district court. You might consider them to be a step below the regular, non-magistrate judges. The district court judges (what I referred to as "non-magistrate"), on the other hand, receive a lifetime appointment after being nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate.

I'm not sure exactly how cases are assigned between the judges, but I know that for my work in the misdemeanor unit, I always appear before one of the 3 magistrate judges in our court. I'm not really sure why this case and trial is before the judge who has it now. But in my view, because it is, it is a little more serious.