What is a pretrial conference?

Answer 1

A meeting of the parties to an action and their attorneys held before the court prior to the commencent of actual courtroom proceedings.

A pretrial conference is a meeting of the parties to a case conducted prior to trial. The conferences held before the trial judge or a magistrate. A pretrial conference may be held prior to 

trial in both civil and criminal cases. 

Pretrial conference may be requested by a party to a case, or it may be ordered by the court.Generally, the term pretrial conference is used interchangeably with the term pretrial hearing.

A pretrial conference may be conducted for several reasons: 

(1) expedite disposition of the case (2) help the court establish managerial control over the case, 

(3) discourage wasteful pretrialactivities, 

(4) improve the quality of the trial with thorough preparation, and

(5) facilitate asettlement of the case.

The governing procedural rules depend on whether the case is criminal or civil in nature, in Federal or State court and the department in question (each court room may adhere to particular trial orders that govern the formatting of said conferences, deadlines and the required documents that the parties must produce (if any) in advance.