Getting an indictment

Many types of felony cases on the federal level and in those states with grand juries are initiated by an indictment. An indictment document charges a defendant with a felony. The indictment just states that there’s probable cause to charge the defendant based on the evidence. It doesn’t imply that the prosecution has met the burden of proving its case beyond a reasonable doubt.

A prosecutor presents evidence to a group of citizens, called a grand jury, which then returns a decision based on its review of the prosecutor’s case. Grand juries exist on the federal level and in most state judicial systems. If the grand jury thinks there’s enough evidence to charge the defendant, it returns an indictment (or true bill); if there isn’t enough evidence for an indictment, the grand jury returns no bill.

The grand jury’s indictment alleges that the defendant has committed each element of the crime charged. An indictment is enough to bring a defendant to trial.

Filing a complaint

A famous quip declares that, at least in those states without a grand jury, you need only two things to file criminal charges against a defendant: a prosecutor and a pen! That’s pretty close to the truth. In many states, a prosecutor can file criminal charges against a defendant by putting his signature on a charging document called a complaint. Sometimes, the complaint is also called an information (that is, it informs defendants about the criminal charges against them).

Like an indictment, the complaint or information must, on its face, state each of the elements of the crimes charged. If it doesn’t, the defendant can bring a motion to dismiss for failure to allege all elements of the crimes in the charging document. If the defendant successfully gets the court to dismiss the complaint or information, the prosecutor may choose to refile the charges to accurately reflect the defendant’s conduct.

In some cases, the prosecution must present the facts to a judge in a hearing to determine whether there’s probable cause to put the defendant on trial. This stage of the proceedings is called a preliminary hearing. The preliminary hearing is like a mini-trial. The defendant doesn’t put on a case, and the judge decides whether the state can go forward with the evidence that the prosecution has presented.

Regardless of whether the prosecutor files a complaint or charges the defendant by grand jury indictment, a paralegal working for a firm that represents criminal defendants should review the charging documents and confer with the supervising attorney as soon as feasible to determine whether there are any fatal defects in the documents, as well as whether the client should raise any defenses to the charges.

You can view a sample criminal summons and complaint online at www.dummies.com/go/paralegalcareer2e.

Gathering police reports

As a paralegal, you gather police reports. Normally, law enforcement sends reports to the prosecutor’s office, but it’s not unusual for reports and other items not to make it to the prosecutor’s files. The paralegal should contact the police detective, sit down with him, and compare the reports in the detective’s files with the reports in the prosecutor’s files. That’s the only way to know whether the prosecutor’s case file is complete. Often, detectives may perform follow-up investigation, and the paralegal needs to ensure that the prosecutor’s case file is always up to date when new information comes in.

In addition, you should request other reports that may not ordinarily show up in the detective’s investigative case file. The nature of these reports depends on the type of case. If you’re dealing with a drunk driving case, you’ll need to make sure you get the report showing that the breath testing machine was properly calibrated. If you’re dealing with a homicide, you as the paralegal should order the autopsy report from the medical examiner. If someone called in the crime on 911, ask the emergency call center to reproduce a copy of the recording for later use in trial.

Often, 911 call centers don’t retain recording forever. After 120, 90, 60, or even fewer days (depending on the specific policy of the law enforcement agency), the critical recording of the person calling in could disappear forever if it’s not properly preserved shortly after the time of the incident.

Be on the lookout for other reports as well. Examples might include crime lab reports for forensic evidence such as DNA, fingerprints, ballistics, fiber analysis, handwriting analysis, and so on.

In addition, begin creating a log for all photographs, photomontages, property, and evidence. After the documents and evidence are gathered, you can organize and compile it into a meaningful trial notebook.

Meeting with victims, clients, and witnesses

One of your pre-trial duties when you work for the prosecution is to contact crime victims and witnesses (those who are favorable to the prosecution and those who aren’t). Try to arrange a meet-and-greet with the victim as soon as possible after the defendant has been charged.

Meet with victims and witnesses early on! Get their statements in writing while their memories for details are fresh and before they’ve had a chance to ponder their stories and change their minds as to what happened.

A crime victim has undergone a traumatic experience, especially in cases concerning a major assault, robbery, rape, or kidnapping, and the effects of the crime may go well beyond any monetary loss to the victim. In homicide cases, you need to arrange to meet with the family of the decedent. You need to be extremely sensitive to their emotional needs. Not surprisingly, they may be quite angry, upset, or distraught. They want information about how the case will proceed through the system, and many times they just need someone to listen to them. Often, the victim needs professional counseling, and you can help line up that kind of assistance.

Quite often, you’re the first line of contact between the crime victim and the prosecuting attorney, and maintaining that rapport with the victim as you assist him through the legal maze may be your most important duty.

Correspondingly, if you work for the defense, you need to meet with your client as soon as you can. If the defendant is in custody, you may have to plan several trips to the jail. In many ways, meeting with the criminal defendant is as critical to the defense as is meeting with the victim for the prosecutor. In your initial meetings, remind the defendant of the attorney’s advice not to discuss the case with anyone. The “friends” your client makes in the next cell could be the people who will sell her up the river in return for some perceived preferential treatment from the authorities in their own cases.

Meet with your client in criminal cases as early and often as reasonably necessary to ensure a good defense and to make sure the client doesn’t feel like she’s being ignored. If the criminal defendant thinks the attorney isn’t including her in the defense process and ends up in prison or paying a hefty bill, she may dislike the judge, but — worse for your office — she may file a complaint against your firm with the state bar association.

In addition to meeting with the crime victim or client, you also need to meet with witnesses early, regardless of which side you’re on. The police reports give a summary of what witnesses might potentially testify to in court. However, written summaries often don’t do justice to the witness’s true story. When police officers interview witnesses at the scene of a crime, their time is limited. Officers can’t possibly get all the important details of the incident when conducting an investigation in the hubbub and immediate aftermath of a criminal act. In their quest to solve the crime as quickly and efficiently as possible, law enforcement officials might gloss over information that’s critical to winning the case in court. Sometimes, you may need to conduct follow-up witness interviews to uncover facts that were missed the first time around.

You also have an advantage over law enforcement when meeting with witnesses. You’re probably not as intimidating as an officer in uniform with a badge and a gun. You can take your time to meet with victim’s witnesses to obtain a fuller, more detailed statement. Through careful interviewing techniques, one witness interview may lead to additional witnesses whose names weren’t uncovered when the police officer first took the report. (We talk more about interviewing skills in Chapter 12.) After you conduct initial interviews and provide a summary to your attorney, the lawyer can determine whether she needs to interview witnesses further.

Obtaining tangible evidence

Paralegals are often instrumental in seeking out and organizing evidence in criminal cases. (We discuss some of the ways you may go about obtaining evidence in Chapter 11.) As a paralegal for the prosecution, you’ll probably help the victim determine what the restitution will be if the defendant gets convicted. Medical records may be critical to proving the case against the defendant, so you may ask the victim to sign a release of medical records. This allows the prosecutor to do follow-up contact with any medical personnel to decide whom to subpoena to testify in court. It also assists the prosecutor in determining the amount of restitution the defendant will owe in the event of a conviction. You determine whether the victim suffered any other financial loss as well. Typical losses include property damage, lost wages, and identity theft losses. Because crime victims deal with the trauma brought on by the criminal act, they especially need your support and guidance to help them gather receipts and other evidence of loss.

The paralegal in the prosecutor’s office should also contact law enforcement to get a rap sheet on the defendant, the victim, and all witnesses. Knowing the criminal records of all the witnesses allows for their effective impeachment (impugning of their credibility) at trial. And it’s also a good idea for the defense team to probe the backgrounds of their witnesses to prepare for any challenges the prosecutor may bring.

Based on the evidence and potential witnesses, the prosecution may opt to offer the defendant a plea bargain, which is an attempt to settle the case, usually by reducing or dismissing some of the charges against the defendant or reducing the severity of the punishment in exchange for a no contest or guilty plea from the defendant. With a no contest (or nolo contendere) plea, a defendant neither admits to nor denies guilt for the charges. It essentially means that, although the defendant professes innocence, he concedes that he may be found guilty of the charges if the case were to go before a jury. Through plea bargaining, many criminal cases settle before they go to trial.

Keeping track of deadlines and documents

During the pre-trial stage, you enter on a calendar all the important dates for the attorney — everything from the arraignment (where the court advises the defendant of the charges and defendant enters a plea) to the actual trial date. In between, there may be hearings for bond reductions, pre-trial motions to suppress evidence from a search warrant or unlawful arrest, settlement conferences, readiness hearings, and discovery compliance hearings. As the paralegal, you make sure the attorney knows about these dates and isn’t surprised by anything on the calendar. When matters get continued, you generally run draft copies of orders around to other attorneys to get signatures and file these papers with the court.

About a month prior to the trial date, you develop a final witness list and prepare subpoenas the attorney will send out to all witnesses for trial. Scheduling witnesses can be a real challenge because you have to deal with individuals’ schedules as well as the court’s. And, trial dates can and often do change when the court grants a continuance, so you may have to reschedule everyone all over again. Whenever the trial date is moved, you need to advise prospective witnesses accordingly. If a witness is unavailable on the trial date, you need to advise your attorney so alternative plans can be made. A witness contact list is critical in order to communicate with the witnesses in a timely manner. (You can find a sample witness contact sheet in Chapter 14.)

In addition to sending out subpoenas well in advance of trial to make sure witnesses get notice of the date, you may also want to send them a short letter advising them that the subpoena is on its way. This gives the witnesses a heads-up so they don’t freak out if a sheriff’s deputy or process server comes to their doors.

Engaging in other pre-trial activities

You may be in charge of making sure your attorney has made appropriate demands for discovery and has responded to the other side’s discovery demands. In criminal law, the prosecutor and defense attorney have an ongoing duty and obligation to continuously respond to discovery as new information becomes available. You may further assist the attorney in drafting pre-trial motions and trial briefs, which requires you to conduct legal research to support your positions. (We cover legal research techniques in Chapter 13.) Naturally, the attorney does a final review of any such documents and signs off on them before you file them with the court. Eventually, you’ll put everything pertinent to the criminal case into the trial notebook for the lawyer.

Polling the jury

Immediately after the jury verdict, whether your side wins or loses, you or your supervising attorney will likely meet with the jurors for a debriefing. Jurors may tell you why they decided the case the way they did. The education you receive from their feedback may help the next case your office handles.

Jurors may tell you which witnesses were believable, what evidence persuaded them, and which arguments made sense. You may also learn which witnesses, evidence, or arguments turned them off. A visit with the jurors after trial is like getting free advice from 12 jury consultants.

Appealing the decision

At the conclusion of the trial, either side may bring post-trial motions, including a motion for a new trial or motion to set aside the jury verdict. Generally, the defendant brings these types of motions. The prosecution usually doesn’t have the right to appeal a guilty verdict. Sometimes, if the court hands down a sentence that doesn’t comply with the law, either party may appeal that decision.

The party that appeals the decision of the lower court is called the appellant or petitioner. The party who defends the case on appeal is called the appellee or respondent. No consistent relationship exists between the plaintiff or defendant and the appellant and appellee. The plaintiff brings the original action in court, but that doesn’t mean the plaintiff brings the appeal, too.

If your supervising attorney’s side wins the trial court case, then you’ve already taken the first step toward winning the case on appeal. The odds favor the side that wins at the trial level in an appellate case. If you work for the prosecution, it’s extremely unlikely that the attorney can appeal an unfavorable decision. If the jury comes back with a not-guilty decision, you’re stuck. The constitutional prohibition against double jeopardy forbids trying a defendant for the same crime twice. If the case experiences a hung jury (that is, if it couldn’t agree on a verdict), the prosecution must decide whether to bring the defendant to trial again. You may assist your supervisor in the decision making process. Information gained from talking to jurors after the trial helps immensely.

If your attorney decides to file an appeal, check the state statutes or court rules to determine how much time you have to file a notice. Generally, the defendant has 30 days to file a notice of appeal after the court has pronounced the sentence. Of course, this timeframe varies depending on federal, state, and local rules.

The best way to think of a notice of appeal is that it has the same function as the original complaint but has a much simpler format. You can draft the notice of appeal for your attorney, and the pleading can be as simple as a one-line notice filed with the court that the defendant appeals the judgment and sentence of the trial court.

Filing the notice in the timeframe specified by law is important — if you fail to do so, the client loses his right to appeal forever.

You may not know that the appellate court doesn’t hear the case all over again. One common mistake that new paralegals make is to assume that, because an appellate court is a higher court, it’s free to do whatever it wants. But the higher court only considers whether the lower court made an error of law. The court considers only the record of the case from the trial level. The record consists of a transcript of the witness testimony, the exhibits the trial judge admitted into evidence, and any pleadings, briefs, or other documents the parties have filed with the trial court.

After your supervising attorney has filed the notice of appeal, you help designate those portions of the record that are relevant to the appeal. If you need a transcript of the trial testimony, you may make arrangements with the court reporter to transcribe the testimony as soon as you can. If you’re working for the appellee, you look at the parts of the record designated by the appellant to decide if you should supplement the record with additional material because the appellant may designate only those portions of the record that would help its side.

When the transcript is ready and each side has supplemented the record as needed, the court of appeals sends out a notice to the parties that the record is complete. The court then sets a briefing schedule, or timeframe, for when the parties must submit their briefs to the court. The appellant goes first and writes the brief of the appellant. The appellee then submits a brief of appellee, and the court of appeals sets very strict timelines that the parties must conform to.

Appellate briefs are crucial because the appeals process doesn’t proceed like a complete trial. There’s no discovery phase, no jury, no witnesses, and no testimony. There’s usually more than just one judge sitting on an appellate court. Often, there are panels consisting of three or more judges. Sometimes, the higher court may hear the appeal en banc, meaning the entire body of the higher court hears and decides the appeal.

With very few exceptions, most courts in the United States are part of a three-level system: a large number of trial courts, a smaller number of intermediate appellate courts, and one supreme court.

Some states have only two levels of courts; some have four. Not every state calls its highest court the supreme court. New York State is one such example; there, the supreme court is the name for trial courts of general jurisdiction and the highest court is called the New York Court of Appeals.

Although every party has an absolute right to appeal from a trial court to the first level of appellate court, they don’t get an automatic appeal to the highest court. If a plaintiff or defendant wants to appeal to the next level of appellate court, she must file a petition for review. The higher court either grants or denies the petition. After the parties have exhausted all levels of appeals, the decision becomes final, and the highest court that heard the appeal issues a mandate (a written order of the court that terminates all review in the matter).

Sending the demand letter

After the attorney and client establish a relationship, the plaintiff notifies the defendant of the damages she has sustained as a result of the defendant’s negligence through a demand letter prepared by the attorney. The attorney often delegates the letter-writing task to you, the paralegal. The demand letter spells out how much time the defendant has to answer the plaintiff’s allegations and requests a specific sum of money as restitution. If the defendant doesn’t answer the demand letter within the specified time period or if the defendant refuses to pay the requested amount of damages, the parties prepare for trial.

You can see a sample demand letter in Chapter 10 and online.

Determining jurisdiction

If you send the demand letter and the prospective defendant hasn’t responded in the required amount of time, the plaintiff’s side prepares for litigation by gathering as many of the facts bearing upon the case as possible. Before the plaintiff initiates litigation, the attorney and paralegal select the proper court to file the case in. So, they have to establish proper jurisdiction.

Jurisdiction determines which type of court has the authority to hear a case. A court has no authority to render a judgment in any case unless it has jurisdiction over the person or property involved. In fact, a court can throw out a case if the plaintiff files it in an improper court. For instance, bankruptcy matters can be tried only in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court.

Civil courts can exercise three types of jurisdiction over parties:

• In personam, which is jurisdiction over a person
• In rem, which is jurisdiction over property
• Quasi in rem, which combines a little of both

If a court exercises in personam jurisdiction, it has the authority to determine the rights or duties of the parties involved in the dispute. The court also has the power to bind the parties personally to a settlement agreement or other court remedy. A court has in personam jurisdiction if it meets one of the following qualifications:

• The defendant resides in the county in which the court has jurisdiction.
• The defendant is present in the county in which the court has jurisdiction. The defendant must be personally served with proper process while in the confines of the county.
• The defendant and the plaintiff consent to a specific jurisdiction. The defendant’s consent is key in this qualification.

Under in personam jurisdiction, the plaintiff must serve the defendant with proper and timely notice of the impending action. The plaintiff’s attorney has the responsibility of serving the defendant while the defendant is present in the county or when the defendant can be contacted to consent to jurisdiction. Generally, the notice of the impending action can’t take on a form other than personal service and can’t be made by publication. (For more about the rules concerning service of process, see Chapter 7.)

In personam actions fall into one of two categories:

• Local: The plaintiff’s attorney may file a local action only where the subject matter of the litigation is located. For example, a party suing to foreclose a mortgage on real property must file the action in the county where the property is situated.
• Transitory: Transitory actions are much broader than local actions. The plaintiff may bring a transitory action in any county in any state where the defendant may be found and served with process. An action for personal injuries resulting from a defective bottle of beer is an example of a transitory action.

In the present court system, the law determines in personam jurisdiction through mutual consent of the parties much more heavily than it used to. Corporations who do business in a state and motorists who drive across a state are said to have consented to the jurisdiction of that state’s trial court under the long-arm statute, which makes it easier for a state to prosecute lawbreakers who don’t reside in the state where they violated the law.

All in rem jurisdiction actions are local. A court with in rem jurisdiction can rule on property that’s located within its county and matters that occur within its county. Notice to satisfy in rem jurisdiction may be made by publication, most commonly by legal notice in the locality’s officially designated newspaper. As long as a matter occurs within or involves property located within the county’s limits, that court has in rem jurisdiction.

Quasi in rem jurisdiction is exercised rarely, usually only in cases where a court is “grasping at straws” to obtain jurisdiction. A court may have jurisdiction over a party to an action if that party owns some property, such as real property or municipal bonds, within its confines even if that property is not involved in the dispute, as long as a judgment can be satisfied by that property.

Courts may also determine jurisdiction by the subject matter of the case. In general, cases originate at either the state or federal level. Federal courts try to severely restrict access to their process when parties want to bring a typical state claim. Specific requirements dictate jurisdiction at the federal level. Courts with specific limited jurisdiction include the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, the U.S. Tax Court, the U.S. Court of International Trade, and the U.S. Claims Court.

To originate in the U.S. District Court, a case must meet one of the following requirements:

• The United States is a party to the case.
• The matter arises under the U.S. Constitution or a statute of the United States, such as civil rights matters.
• The case involves a diversity of citizenship, which means the controversy is between citizens of different states or between a U.S. citizen and a foreign national (a citizen of a foreign country who resides in the U.S.). These cases must present a claim for damages that exceeds a set amount, currently $75,000.

State statutes determine the jurisdiction requirements at the state level. Factors include the amount of monetary damages sought and the type of matter that the court will hear. In many states, matters asking for damages exceeding $25,000 originate in the trial court. There are also courts with specific jurisdiction like water courts and family law courts.

An understanding of the types of jurisdiction and the jurisdictional requirements provides you with the information necessary to determine the proper court for clients’ cases.

Deciding on venue

After you determine proper jurisdiction, you choose the trial’s venue (location). Generally, the venue for the trial is chosen for the convenience of the defendant, because venue plays an important role in allowing defendants to receive an impartial jury and a fair trial.

The bases for determining the venue of each dispute are as follows:

• Residence of one of the parties: Statutes commonly allow the plaintiff to bring the action in the county where the defendant resides.
• Defendant’s place of doing business: Plaintiffs often sue corporations in the county or district where they do business.
• Site of the subject matter: The plaintiff must bring suit in the county where the property is located if the lawsuit involves specific property.
• Site of the cause of action: Plaintiffs may bring some actions where the cause of the dispute occurred. For example, an assault case that occurred in Denver County involving a defendant who resides in Arapahoe County may be heard in either the Denver County Court or the Arapahoe County Court, depending on the consent of the defendant. Similarly, a negligence case that occurred in Orange County involving a defendant who resides in Los Angeles County may be heard in either Orange County Superior Court or Los Angeles County Superior Court, depending on the consent of the defendant.

Note: Where the venue rules allow a choice of venue, the plaintiff usually gets to make the choice. For example, if the defendant resides in Orange County and the cause of action arose in Riverside County, the plaintiff usually has the right to decide whether to bring the lawsuit in Orange County or Riverside County.

Either party may request a change of venue to another county or district. The defendant usually is the party that requests a change of venue. Where the case has received wide publicity before trial, a party may seek a change of venue in an effort to secure jurors who haven’t formed an opinion about the case or to provide a neutral forum not charged with local bias. The parties might also request a change of venue for the convenience of witnesses. Finally, a party might request a change of venue based on that party’s claim that the judge hearing the case has a conflict of interest that would prevent that judge from being completely unbiased during the trial. This formal request is traditionally called a motion to recuse.

Dealing with discovery

After the filing and service of the last pleading allowed by court rules, the parties begin the discovery period. Paralegals assist their supervising attorneys in the discovery process. Discovery assumes two very similar forms: oral and written. Oral discovery consists of depositions, and written discovery consists of interrogatories, request for admissions, request for production of documents, and request for mental or physical examinations.

Either party to a lawsuit may request discovery in an effort to ascertain the facts necessary to prepare for trial, prevent surprises at trial, and, ideally, settle the action. Without a court order, written discovery can only be served upon parties to the lawsuit, but the parties to a lawsuit can require both parties and non-parties to undergo a deposition.

Because paralegals create many of the questions for written discovery, and because so much of written discovery is easily stored in the law office’s computers, attorneys like to explore this relatively inexpensive discovery technique prior to administering more expensive depositions. Unless limited by court order, rule, or statute, most supervising attorneys have their staffs prepare a massive amount of discovery. After the law office receives the answers to written discovery, the requesting party might then depose the other party in an effort to clarify responses and resolve questions.

Even though answers to both oral and written discovery are provided under oath, the deposition responses are spontaneous and may be more helpful. Some attorneys conduct depositions rather that written discovery at the close of pleadings in an effort to get the most accurate information possible. Written discovery may then follow the deposition testimony. A deposition is an out-of-court statement that a party to or witness of an action gives under oath. Under the statutes and rules in most states, either party in a civil action may take the deposition of the other party or of any witness. To be effective, a notice to take deposition must be served upon the deponent accompanied by a subpoena and a check for mileage and witness fees.

Attorneys frequently take depositions of important witnesses to preserve their testimony if they can’t appear in court or if they reside in other states or countries. These witnesses may be friendly, neutral, or even hostile toward your office’s client. Their deposition testimony assists in determining the nature of the evidence that they would testify to if subpoenaed as witnesses in the trial. The deposition may take the form of answers to written questions or of oral examination followed by cross-examination. A deposition isn’t a public record and isn’t available to the press unless it’s made public by court order.

Depositions may also be professionally videotaped. The advantages of adding video to the discovery process include the ability of the court to view the demeanor of the testimony and the potential for greater access to busy expert witnesses. Video recording may be more expensive, however, than procedures that involve only a court reporter. It’s very difficult for a state to compel a witness’s presence at a civil trial if the witness resides outside the state. Therefore, often the witness’s deposition suffices for trial testimony. When a party seeks the testimony of a long-distance witness, the witness applies to the court where the case is pending for the issuance of an out-of-state commission, commonly called letters rogatory. This document empowers an official or attorney in the jurisdiction where the witness is residing to take the witness’s deposition and forward it to the court where the action is pending.

In some states, the issuance of an out-of-state commission is unnecessary; so you should always consult your local court rules.

If a witness is absent from the jurisdiction or is unable to attend the trial in person, her deposition may be viewed or read into evidence. If a person who has given a deposition also appears as a witness at the trial, the deposition may be used to attack the witness’s credibility if oral testimony at the trial is inconsistent with that contained in the deposition.

Either party may submit written discovery questions (called interrogatories) to the other party. The receiving party must answer these questions under oath. Unlike depositions, parties do not routinely file written discovery unless the court orders it.

Other discovery documents include the following:

• Request for production of documents: Requires adverse parties to produce books, records, and documents for inspection
• Request for admissions: Requires the adverse party to admit to or deny the genuineness of statements and documents
• Request for a physical or mental examination: Requires the adverse party to submit to a physical or mental examination

If the other party doesn’t provide responses to discovery, a party may file a motion to compel. Because an underlying purpose of discovery is to uncover all relevant evidence and to promote settlement of the case, the courts liberally construe and apply discovery techniques. So, the court will more than likely force a party to provide the information required by the discovery process even though that same information may not necessarily be admissible at the ensuing trial.

You can see sample discovery documents online.

Conducting the pre-trial conferences

After each of the parties finishes conducting discovery and the case is determined to be at issue, many courts set the case for a pre-trial hearing or pre-trial conference. Generally, the attorneys appear at this hearing without their clients. In the presence of a judge, the attorneys seek to agree on undisputed facts and issues called stipulations. These stipulations may include such matters as the time and location of an accident; the use of pictures, maps, or sketches at trial; and other matters, including points of law.

The objective of the pre-trial hearing is to shorten the actual trial time without infringing upon the rights of either party. Pre-trial procedure frequently results in the settlement of the case without a trial, and case settlement is actually a primary purpose of the pre-trial conference. If the case doesn’t settle, the court assigns a specific trial date for the case.