There are two big events that take will place in family court in regard "to your matter" (as your case is often called!)--one is the Pretrial and the other is the Trial. You would be missing out on how these two big events unfold if you weren't aware that your attorney, or you, if you are a self represented party, is required to submit a considerable number of documents several days in advance before such an event takes place.
In this article, I will be talking about the Pretrial.
As you may or may not know, the vast majority of cases in Family Court do not go to trial and are instead resolved through negotiation. In order to facilitate this negotiation, the Court offers pretrials in advance of trial.
This is an opportunity: a) for both sides to put their cards on the table and state what they are willing to settle for and b) it is also an opportunity to hear from the "pre-trying authority" or most likely a judge made available for the purpose.
(A judge, you may recall from my previous posts, is also entitled "the finder of fact" when he is conducting a trial; just like God, who, in the bible, has a whole lot of names, judges have a lot of names too!)
The judge will provide feedback to the parties regarding what he or she thinks you could get if you decided to go to trial with the documentation and witnesses you have.
When I have participated in pretrials, most often the attorneys in the case met with the "pre-trying authority" (or "judge") in his chambers (or "office") and pretty much hammered out most of the anticipated agreements, and then the Parties straggled in afterwards for the pre-trial hearing just to express their final views and tweak the wording here and there.
This can be truly irritating if your attorney pretty much went into chambers and negotiated away all of your rights, which happens quite frequently in high conflict divorces.
This is what is helpful to know about the pretrial compliance--i.e. the documentation and your list of witnesses which you put together in preparation for the pretrial hearing. These documents are extremely informative to you as a litigant in terms of alerting you regarding the direction your attorney intends to go in.
If you pay attention to the documents and witnesses your attorney intends to use, you can ask the kinds of questions you need to ask in order to persuade your attorney to work more faithfully on your behalf. For example, if you are complaining that you are a victim of domestic violence and the police officers who provided reports of that domestic violence are not on your list of witnesses, you can be sure your own attorney does not intend to bring up the issue of domestic violence no matter how often he responds to your inquiries with "Sure, sure, I'll bring it up." Everything you need to argue a point must be in your pretrial compliance, so if something isn't there, you need to confront your attorney about that immediately before you go to pretrial. Otherwise, if the document or witness regarding an issue isn't there, it is gone as an issue.
The documents that you need for your pretrial compliance must be submitted to the trying authority on the day of the pretrial. However, this material must be provided to the opposing attorney at least seven (7) calendar days before the scheduled pretrial and include the following:
1. Memorandum: A non-argumentative memorandum, including jurisdictional facts, statutory authority, marital history, the ages of the parties, any information about the health, education and employment history of the parties, and a statement as to whether or not fault is at issue in the case. This is where you state your case in a clear and forthright manner;
2. Proposed Orders: State what is it that you want in a divorce agreement and write it out in a list format. These are written out in accordance with Practice Book Sec. 25-30(c) and (d);
3. Parental Responsibility Plan: Write out what kind of parenting arrangement you would like on Form JD-FM-199. If you are in agreement with your X regarding your plan, just write the plan out as is. However, if there are still areas of disagreement, indicate where those areas are;
4. Motions: Write out a list of all pending motions, including motions that have to be addressed just before trial such as a motion in limine (to exclude evidence from the record) or a motion for a protective order (to prevent a witness from being subpoened or deposed);
5. Financial Affidavits: Use Form JD-FM-6 to provide a detailed income statement, a list of assets and liabilities, the sworn-to value of all assets, current value of all retirement and employment benefits and any proposed distribution;
6. Statement of Stipulations and Disputes: A statement indicating where you and your X are in agreement regarding the division of assets, along with a statement indicating where there exist continuing disputes;
7. Appraisals and/or valuations: Appraisals of real estate or personal property, or valuations of a business;
8. Pension Valuations: Estimates of the value of any retirement accounts that you have;
9. Taxes: Copies of individual or joint (whatever is relevant to you) federal and state tax returns along with the backup documentation for the last three years (of course, don't restrict yourself to three years if you think something beyond the three years timeframe might have relevance to the case);
10. Tax Documents: For those of you who have an interest in a business, copies of business tax returns and K-1 statements for the last three years;
11. Child Support Guidelines Worksheet: A fully completed child support guidelines worksheet that the Parties agree to. If the parties disagree, one from each Party with the recommendation each has for child support.
12. Affidavit Concerning the Children: Form JD-FM-164 filled out, signed and notarized.
As you can see, pretty much all the information you need to conduct a trial is included with all of this material.
Altogether these submissions tell a complete story, not only to the judge (pre-trying authority; finder of fact), but also to the opposing attorney.
In this version of the Standing Orders the last remark is that the orders "do not include and are not intended to be addressed to guardians ad litem for minor children." I am not sure I understand this because, as I recall it, all of these documents were addressed to the GAL in my case and the GAL was present at all the hearings, pretrial and otherwise. So, I am assuming that all this means is that there are no pretrial forms or documents that the GAL needs to provide prior to trial; only the Parties need to provide anything.
It is now 2011 and these orders were written in 2009 by Judge Lynda Monro, but I couldn't find anything more recent on the judicial website. I would keep an eye out for anything more recent, and definitely check in the Practice Book to be sure that you are entirely accurate in your understanding of what is required here, just in case there have been some changes since 2009.
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