Short answer. A preliminary conference lets the court explore an amicable settlement where the case can be compromised, define and simplify the issues, formulate stipulations of facts and admissions of exhibits, limit witnesses in certain cases, and take up other matters helping move the case toward prompt disposition.
What the law says
At any time during the pendency of a case, the court may call the parties and their counsel to a preliminary conference: (a) To consider the possibility of an amicable settlement, except when the case is not allowed by law to be compromised; (b) To define, simplify and clarify the issues for determination; (c) To formulate stipulations of facts and admissions of documentary exhibits, limit the number of witnesses to be presented in cases falling within the original jurisdiction of the court
Rule 48, Section 1 — Preliminary conference. Read the full provision →
What the law says
(d) To take up such other matters which may aid the court in the prompt disposition of the case.
Rule 48, Section 1 — Preliminary conference. Read the full provision →
A tool available at any point in the case
Section 1 does not restrict when a preliminary conference may be held. At any time during the pendency of a case, the court may call the parties and their counsel to a preliminary conference. It is a flexible mechanism the Court of Appeals can invoke whenever it seems useful, not a fixed stage every case must pass through, and it can happen more than once if circumstances warrant a second or later conference.
Settlement, where compromise is legally allowed
The first purpose listed is exploring settlement: to consider the possibility of an amicable settlement, except when the case is not allowed by law to be compromised. Not every case can be settled — some subject matters are simply not open to compromise — so this purpose applies only where the law actually permits the parties to reach that kind of agreement.
Narrowing the issues and the evidence
The conference also serves to define, simplify and clarify the issues for determination and to formulate stipulations of facts and admissions of documentary exhibits, limit the number of witnesses to be presented in cases falling within the original jurisdiction of the court — trimming the case down to what genuinely needs to be litigated rather than what either side might simply prefer to argue.
A catch-all for prompt disposition
Finally, the court may take up such other matters which may aid the court in the prompt disposition of the case. This open-ended purpose gives the conference room to address whatever practical issue, beyond settlement and issue-narrowing, would help the case move efficiently toward resolution, without needing to be squeezed into one of the more specific purposes listed earlier in the section, since foreseeing every useful topic in advance would be impossible.
How the conference connects to what follows
What happens at the conference is not left to fade once it ends. Section 2 requires the proceedings to be recorded and a resolution issued embodying the actions taken, the stipulations and admissions made, and the issues defined, and Section 3 then makes that resolution generally control the case going forward, subject to a party's five-day window to object and the court's power to modify the resolution to prevent manifest injustice.
Related provisions
- Rule 48, Section 1 — Preliminary conference
- Rule 48, Section 2 — Record of the conference
- Rule 48, Section 3 — Binding effect of the results of the conference