Rule 35.04 Judicial Determination of Whether to Proceed Ex Parte

When someone asks a judge to make a decision without telling the other side first (called proceeding "ex parte"), the judge has to check if there's a good reason for this before doing anything else. This is what happens when a lawyer files a motion asking the court to act secretly or urgently, without giving the opposing lawyer a chance to respond right away.

If the judge decides there's a good reason to keep things private for now, the judge will go ahead and rule on the actual request. The judge then decides how and when to let the other side's lawyer know about the decision, and makes sure it gets properly recorded on the court's docket.

If the judge decides there isn't a good enough reason to skip notifying the other side, the process goes back to normal. The motion gets placed on the regular court docket and gets served on the opposing party, just like any other request, so both sides can respond to it.