TRIAL MANAGEMENT ORDER - DEC. 1, 2009

In my previous blog, I discussed the Standing Orders which you must comply with in preparation for a pre-trial hearing at family court.  At this point, I would like to review the Standing Orders which you must comply to in preparation for a trial. 

If you are heading for trial, this means that you were unable to hammer out an agreement with your X during your pretrial conference.  Still, this does not mean that negotiations aren't continuing as you move in the direction of trial. 

Often, your attorney is meeting with the opposing attorney casually while waiting in the corridors for hearings on other cases, or giving the opposing attorney a quick phone call with a proposal here or a proposal there, or writing letters to the opposing attorney with suggestions for a settlement. 

For your information, when the attorneys write letters with proposals for settlement, they write them with the words "FOR SETTLEMENT ONLY" at the top of the page.  Supposedly, when they do that, this means that neither attorney has the legal right to bring whatever has been written in the letter to Court and present it to the judge in order to get advantage in court.  It is supposed to be a protected and confidential document. 

However, I was just observing a hearing a couple of weeks ago where the judge allowed letters clearly labeled "FOR SETTLEMENT ONLY" into the trial as full exhibits.  I myself found a letter a former attorney of mine had written for settlement only used by a judge in a recent determination he made in regard to a motion I'd made. 

So, if you don't want the information used against you, never ever write it in a letter no matter what. 

In this intensive environment where everyone is working to reach a settlement, even in very high conflict divorces, it becomes possible to arrive at an agreement.  Still, as you move towards that trial date, you are required to prepare specific documents in preparation for the big day.  These documents must be submitted to the caseflow office and the opposing attorney not less than 10 (ten) calendar days before the assigned trial date. 

If you are having expert witnesses come to trial, you must disclose them in accordance with the Practice Book Sec. 13-4 at least 30 (thirty) days in advance. 

Many of the documents required for trial are the very same documents you were expected to provide for the Pre-trial Conference.  They are as follows:

1.  Financial Affidavits:  Current sworn financial affidavits, including 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;

2.  Motions:  A list of all pending motions, including motions to be decided before the start of trial (in limine) and motions for protective order;

3.  Child Support Guidelines Worksheet: The fully completed form;

4.  Proposed Orders:  A list of what orders you want the judge to give you in accordance with Practice Book Sec. 25-30(c) and (d), which shall be comprehensive and set forth the parties' requested relief;

5.  Proposed Parental Responsibility Plan:  If you have one, a written stipulation detailing the plan which you would like included in the proposed orders;

6.  Affidavit Re Children:  An Executed Affidavit concerning Children (JD-FM-164)

Other documents that are required are unique to the trial and reflect the fact that documents and witnesses have now been specifically selected for the purpose of developing arguments at trial which will support your position.  These documents are as follows:

7.  List of Witnesses:  A list of  the names of all witnesses each party reasonably expects to call as part of their case in chief, as well as any reasonably anticipated rebuttal witnesses, including an identifer (that is, party, eyewitness, or expert), as well as a brief description of what each will testify to;

8.  List of Exhibits:  A list of exhibits each party reasonably expects to introduce in evidence, indexed by P plus a number for the plaintiff, and D plus a letter for the defendant, with a brief description of each exhibit.

Usually this list of witnesses and the list of exhibits, as well as the list of motions, are put together in a single document.

The actual exhibits are not to be sent to the Caseflow Office but are to be exchanged by the parties as part of the compliance with this order.  The parties usually meet in the Courtroom at 9:15 a.m. immediately before trial and finish up the labeling of the exhibits and exchange the documents right then and there.  Each of the parties should have an extra set of exhibits which they will provide to the Court during the course of the trial.

I always make sure there is also another additional copy of the exhibits because it never fails that as the trial goes to the second or third day, the opposing counsel will claim that they have lost their copies of my exhibits and I'll have to supply additional copies to them again.

Next, in response to the lists of the exhibits, each counsel submits another document listing objections to the admission of opposing counsel's exhibits, and includes with each objection a statement regarding the grounds for the objection, if there is one.

So the focus with the preparation for pretrial is more one of obtaining discovery and determining what is out there, while the focus of the trial is to take what you have found as a result of discovery and make a case with it.

 Finally, there are a few more documents which finish up the array which are:

9. Computer Analysis:  A computer generated alimony and child support cash analysis, calculated by a program that is only available to attorney's, I believe.  So if you want to put one together I think you have to pay an attorney to do it for you.  This analysis should make it clear whether you are using gross or net income, and it should also provide an indication of how the split would go based upon different proposed support plans, i.e. 50-50, or 60-40, whatever.  These computer reports should be exchanged by the parties.

10.  Dissolution Report (JD-FM-181) or (JD-FM-181A, used in civil unions):  The judge can then use the information on this paperwork to put together the divorce decree.

If these witnesses and documents were all available to you, it should be possible to negotiate a fair and equitable agreement between you and your soon to be X  based upon what you have.  That's why the judges put together the standing orders, because they should encourage behavior that is reasonable and sensible. 

Unfortunately, what happens so often is that one or the other party refuses to provide the necessary financial documents and then the judges let them get away with not providing the information. 

This happens frequently in situations where the judge appears to concluded that one or the other party was the offended party, based upon some whim or impression that you, as a litigant, will never know the basis for, or else, one or the other attorney's was very good at stating his or her case either for or against you. 

Be that as it may, if a judge sides against you, then that judge will not care to enforce any of the rules unless it compromises you, or puts you in a bad position.  Essentially, judges put their hands on the scale; they disregard what the law requires, and give the side they like the right to do exactly as they please.  As a result, what could be a fair and equitable system turns into a kind of organized free for all with all the superficial trappings of structure, but deep down, the reality that the Court is implementing of a system that is riddled with inconsistent and unfair rulings where thousands of innocent men, women and children are buried underneath a mountain of injustice.