Also known as: pretrial conference · pre-trial conference · pre-trial conferences
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A court-directed meeting of attorneys and unrepresented parties convened to address case management. The conference permits the court to set schedules, simplify issues, resolve discovery disputes, consider amendments, and explore settlement.
Prosperity Investments served interrogatories on Pacific Bank asking the bank to identify every allegedly misleading statement and explain why each was false. Pacific Bank objected that the questions sought legal contentions and could not be answered until more discovery occurred. At the pretrial conference the court overruled the objection as to scope but ordered that full answers need not be served until after key document production.
Pamela Phillips failed to appear at the scheduled pretrial conference despite receiving notice. The court found that her absence prevented formulation of a trial plan and imposed monetary sanctions covering the opposing party's excess costs under the authority to sanction failures to attend pretrial conferences.
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Piper Patel sued Progressive Healthcare alleging wrongful termination and industry-wide conspiracy claims. At the initial pretrial conference the judge directed counsel to identify which employment theories were actually being pursued and to withdraw the unsupported conspiracy allegations that lacked factual grounding.
Prime Logistics designated an expert whose methodology was challenged by Pedro Pacheco. At the pretrial conference the court exercised its gatekeeping role, required the parties to brief the reliability of the expert's opinions, and set a deadline for any Daubert motion well before trial.
The court may formulate and simplify the issues, eliminate frivolous claims, permit amendments, resolve discovery disputes, and set a trial plan. These functions promote efficient resolution and avoid unnecessary proof at trial.
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Yes. When an interrogatory seeks an opinion or contention relating to fact or the application of law to fact, the court may order that the answer need not be given until designated discovery is complete or until the pretrial conference.
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A party or attorney who fails to appear may be required to pay the excess costs, expenses, and attorney's fees incurred by the opposing side because of the nonappearance. The court may also impose other appropriate sanctions listed in the rules.
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The court may direct counsel to identify viable claims, withdraw unsupported allegations, and stipulate to undisputed facts. This process eliminates frivolous matters and focuses the trial on genuine disputes.
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…for the imposition of attorney's fees as a sanction. See Fed. Rules Civ. Proc. 11 (certification requirement for papers), 16(f) (pretrial conferences), 26(g) (certification requirement for discovery requests), 30(g) (oral depositions), 37 (sanctions for failure to cooperate with discovery), 56(g) (affidavits accompanying summary judgment…