Friends and colleagues on Friday remembered Ocmulgee Circuit Superior Court Judge James Cline Jr. as an extremely intelligent jurist who tempered a no-nonsense courtroom demeanor with humor, spurring litigants and lawyers to move things along with an oft-repeated admonition of “We’re burning daylight!”
“I always enjoyed knowing when he was going to be on the calendar, because he moved things very quickly,” said Gray attorney John Newberry, the former president of the Ocmulgee Circuit Bar Association. “If court started at 9, you could go in early and speak to him because he’d be on the bench by 8:30, ready to go.”
