The pretrial conference is basically your attorney, the opposing attorney and the judge will get together and they will draft and enter into a pretrial conference order. Now, what that basically does is it lays out a roadmap for the entire trial. Who are the witnesses? What’s the anticipated testimony? What exhibits are coming in? Why are they being brought in? What objections are there? Any stipulated issues like for example, jurisdiction and venue.

That then becomes binding on both sides as far as what their conduct at trial is going to be. Now, it can be modified, but you have to show the cause as to why. And what you do at the pretrial conference is you will enter that order. You will address any issues that, preliminary issues that need to be addressed before the trial. And you basically will set out a roadmap for a streamlined and efficient trial so that there aren’t really any surprises. And so that you can figure out how many days you need to actually try the case.

I mean that that’s the essential purpose. Do you have to be in attendance? Well, that depends on your judge. Your attorney definitely needs to be in attendance, but some judges will order the parties to be in attendance. Some judges will not order the parties to be in attendance. It really is discretionary on the judge. In my experience in Tulsa County with Family court, the judges usually order parties to be there for the pretrial conference in custody matters. And usually, there’ll be some kind of an admonition about putting it in the judge’s hands as opposed to working it out.

If you’re headed to a pretrial conference, that’s your last stop before a trial, and you need a good lawyer. So one place you can find a good Oklahoma family law attorney is Dads.Law where fathers are not disposable. Thanks, guys.