A district, statutory county, or business court judge must:
(a) diligently discharge the administrative responsibilities of the office;
(b) rule on a case within three months after the case is taken under advisement;
(c) if an election contest or a suit for the removal of a local official is filed in the judge’s court, request the presiding judge to assign another judge who is not a resident of the county to dispose of the suit;
(d) on motion by either party in a disciplinary action against an attorney, request the presiding judge to assign another judge who is not a resident of the administrative region where the action is pending to dispose of the case;
(e) request the presiding judge to assign another judge of the administrative region to hear a motion relating to the recusal or disqualification of the judge from a case pending in his court; and
(f) to the extent consistent with due process, consider using methods to expedite the disposition of cases on the docket of the court, including:
(1) adherence to firm trial dates with strict continuance policies;
(2) the use of teleconferencing, videoconferencing, or other available means in lieu of personal appearance for motion hearings, pretrial conferences, scheduling, and other appropriate court proceedings;
(3) pretrial conferences to encourage settlements and to narrow trial issues;
(4) taxation of costs and imposition of other sanctions authorized by the Rules of Civil Procedure against attorneys or parties filing frivolous motions or pleadings or abusing discovery procedures; and
(5) local rules, consistently applied, to regulate docketing procedures and timely pleadings, discovery, and motions.
