A settlement or pre-trial conference is a meeting between opposing sides of a
lawsuit
-
A lawsuit is a proceeding by a party or parties against another in the civil court of law. The archaic term "suit in law" is found in only a small number of laws still in effect today. The term "lawsuit" is used in reference to a civil actio ...
at which the parties attempt to reach a mutually agreeable resolution of their dispute without having to proceed to a
trial
In law, a trial is a coming together of Party (law), parties to a :wikt:dispute, dispute, to present information (in the form of evidence (law), evidence) in a tribunal, a formal setting with the authority to Adjudication, adjudicate claims or d ...
. Such a conference may be initiated through either party, usually by the conveyance of a
settlement offer
A settlement offer or offer to settle is an offer to resolve an outstanding issue or account. This may involve a statutory offer to compromise in a civil lawsuit. In either case, it involves communication from one party to the other suggesting a ...
; or it may be ordered by the
court
A court is any person or institution, often as a government institution, with the authority to adjudicate legal disputes between parties and carry out the administration of justice in civil, criminal, and administrative matters in accordance ...
as a precedent (preliminary step) to holding a trial. Each party, the
plaintiff
A plaintiff ( Π in legal shorthand) is the party who initiates a lawsuit (also known as an ''action'') before a court. By doing so, the plaintiff seeks a legal remedy. If this search is successful, the court will issue judgment in favor of the p ...
and the
defendant
In court proceedings, a defendant is a person or object who is the party either accused of committing a crime in criminal prosecution or against whom some type of civil relief is being sought in a civil case.
Terminology varies from one jurisdic ...
, is usually represented at the ''settlement conference'' by their own
counsel
A counsel or a counsellor at law is a person who gives advice and deals with various issues, particularly in legal matters. It is a title often used interchangeably with the title of ''lawyer''.
The word ''counsel'' can also mean advice given ...
or
attorney. Conferences are frequently conducted by a judge or other neutral party, in the form of a
mediation
Mediation is a structured, interactive process where an impartial third party neutral assists disputing parties in resolving conflict through the use of specialized communication and negotiation techniques. All participants in mediation are ...
.
Case conference
In many courts in the
common law
In law, common law (also known as judicial precedent, judge-made law, or case law) is the body of law created by judges and similar quasi-judicial tribunals by virtue of being stated in written opinions."The common law is not a brooding omnipresen ...
system, a case conference may be used to settle a case.
In some courts, the rules require that before certain types of motions or petitions will be heard by the judge, the lawyers must "meet and confer" to try to resolve the matter.
Foreclosure Pre-foreclosure Settlement Conferences
On December 1, 2008, the New York State Unified Court System began sending notices to borrowers in default who have high cost mortgages, whose mortgages were being foreclosed prior to September 1, 2008, offering voluntary settlement conferences. Borrowers with high cost mortgages whose mortgages entered or are entering into foreclosure from September 2008 on, will be required to attend a mandatory settlement conference prior to foreclosure proceedings. High cost loans are considered to have excessive fees, risk-based sub-prime percentage rates, negative amortizing payment options, and other features which may or may not be considered predatory lending practices.
On December 15, 2009,
Governor David Paterson
David Alexander Paterson (born May 20, 1954) is an American politician and attorney who served as the 55th governor of New York, succeeding Eliot Spitzer and serving out nearly three years of Spitzer's term from March 2008 to December 2010. A ...
signed into law an expanded version of the mandatory settlement conference legislation. Section 3408 of the
Civil Practice Law and Rules of New York now provides that the court shall hold a mandatory settlement conference for all loans for one to four family homes within sixty days following the date proof of service is filed with the county clerk. The new law also provides that both the defendant homeowner and the plaintiff lender negotiate in good faith during their mandated settlement conference. The plaintiff lender is required to have a representative or attorney appear at the settlement conference with the authority to fully negotiate and settle the matter.
[{{cite journal , last1=Dillon , first1=Mark C. , title=The Newly-Enacted CPLR 3408 for Easing the Mortgage Foreclosure Crisis: Very Good Steps, but not Legislatively Perfect Foreclosure Crisis: Very Good Steps, but not Legislatively Perfect , journal=Pace Law Review , date=April 2010 , volume=30 , issue=3 , page=855 , url=https://digitalcommons.pace.edu/plr/vol30/iss3/3 , access-date=21 November 2021]
The foreclosure proceedings are effectively stopped until the referee or judicial hearing officer (JHO) in the settlement conference determines that the settlement conferences are concluded, either because the parties have successfully modified the home loan or obtained some other foreclosure alternative or the referee has determined that one of the parties has not satisfied its requirements under the law. Settlement conferences do not produce formal dispositions but may facilitate loan modifications and stop foreclosure. The referee or JHO will make a recommendation to the judge overseeing the foreclosure proceedings once the settlement conference is concluded.
See also
*
Allocation questionnaire
An allocation questionnaire is a form used in English legal practice. After a claim is made, if a defence is filed each party is required to complete and return an allocation questionnaire to the court so that the judge may properly allocate the c ...
for the paperwork used to set up the settlement conference for
small claims
Small-claims courts have limited jurisdiction to hear civil cases between private litigants. Courts authorized to try small claims may also have other judicial functions, and go by different names in different jurisdictions. For example, it may b ...
matters in England
*
In open court
In open court is a legal term in the United States defined by the appearance by a party or their attorney in a public court session such as during a public trial. Normally, the public may be present at trials, hearings and similar routine matte ...
References
Civil procedure