A Brief On Orange County Trial Setting Conferences
The decision to divorce is a life altering decision and therefore needs to be considered well in advance before you go to court. When a couple decides to get divorced, this is only the first of the many important decisions that the person would have to make in the coming time. Once you have decided to divorce, you need to think about and decide on the method of divorce.
Once you have filed for divorce, at some point, the court may schedule a trial setting conference if you are litigating your case.
A Hearing To Set The Trial Date
Trial setting conferences are one of the many important aspects in the functioning of the court that will affect your Orange County divorce case. The importance of a trial setting hearing can be seen by the fact that they are the first steps to getting a trial date allotted in your case. A trial setting conference is strictly a legal matter and more often than not only the lawyers of the spouses will attend these hearings. There are, however, some exceptions for the spouses to appear in the hearing if they want to or when they are summoned by the court to attend it.
Scenarios In The Trial Setting Hearing
Once the trial setting hearing has started in the Orange County Family Law Court, the judge will ask both the layers a question. The question from the judge would inquire as to the state of the case preparation of each party. There can be two probable scenarios in this case, both of them are outlined below.
- Both the parties reply to the Judge in affirmative and are ready for trial. In this case, the judge will most probably look to set a trial date for the trials to begin. The trial date would be set making sure of the availability of both parties and their lawyers.
- One of the parties tells the judge that they lack preparation and need more time. In this case, the judge will set a new date for the trial setting hearing in the future giving the unprepared party the time to prepare their case. Although in some cases if there has been an unnecessary delay in the case, the judge can set the trial date irrespective.
To learn more about the divorce process in California and how mediation can help, please visit our page, “What is Divorce Mediation.”
Gerald A. Maggio is a trained Irvine divorce mediator who has amicably resolved cases many cases out of court, as well as an experienced divorce and family law attorney. Mr. Maggio founded California Divorce Mediators in 2012 with the belief that although “not every marriage can be saved, every family can” and a mission to save families from the financial and emotional distress associated with traditional divorce litigation. California Divorce Mediators is located in Irvine, California, and serves the Orange County area and other counties in California offering divorce mediation, child custody mediation and mediation of other family law matters.
