A case management conference is a short hearing where the judge checks on the progress of your case. In most family cases you will not testify, you will probably not speak at all, and nothing about your finances or your children is decided that day. Your attorney reports where the case stands, the judge makes sure the next dates are on the calendar, and the case moves on.
If an order setting one has just arrived in the mail, the worry it produces is usually out of proportion to the hearing itself. The conference is rarely the hard part. The list of things the order expects you to have already done is.
What a case management conference is for
Florida family cases are governed by the Family Law Rules of Procedure rather than the civil rules. Rule 12.200 is the one that matters here. It lets the court order a case management conference at any time on its own initiative, and lets a party request one thirty days after the petition or complaint is served.
At the conference the court can do considerably more than take attendance. Under the rule it may:
- set or reset deadlines for motions, pleadings, and other filings
- set or reset the time of trial
- limit, schedule, or expedite discovery, and set deadlines for disclosing expert witnesses
- refer the parties to mediation or to counseling
- appoint a court expert, or an attorney or guardian ad litem for a child
- order a parenting plan recommendation, a social investigation, a home study, or a psychological evaluation
- coordinate the progress of the case where complex litigation factors are present
- pursue the possibilities of settlement
Several of those referrals carry an exception where there is a history of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual violence, or stalking between the parties. If that is part of your situation, your attorney needs to know before the conference.
Whatever is covered, the court enters an order reciting what was done and what the parties stipulated to, and that order controls the case going forward unless it is later modified. That is the quiet significance of a five minute hearing.
When to expect one in a Hillsborough County case
Tampa family cases are filed in the family law division of the Hillsborough County Circuit Court, at the George Edgecomb Courthouse, 800 East Twiggs Street. The division manages its cases actively, and many family matters here receive an order setting an initial case management conference within the first months after filing, without either side asking.
Be careful with any specific number of days you read online, including numbers this firm has published in the past. Case management practice is set by the circuit and by the division your case is assigned to, and it changes. The date that governs your case is the one printed on your order.
Attending is not optional. The rule requires reasonable notice, and it allows the court to dismiss the action, strike pleadings, limit the proof or the witnesses offered at trial, or take other action when a party does not appear. If the date the court selected is genuinely impossible, the remedy is a motion asking to be excused or to reschedule, filed as soon as the conflict is known.
The deadlines that come before the conference
This is where people get caught. Several obligations in a Florida family case run from the date of filing or service, not from the date of the conference. By the time you appear, they are already due.
- Mandatory disclosure. Family Law Rule 12.285 requires the exchange of a financial affidavit and a defined set of supporting documents within forty five days of service of the petition. In a case seeking permanent financial relief the financial affidavit cannot be waived by agreement, although other parts of mandatory disclosure can be modified or waived by agreement or court order.
- The child support guidelines worksheet. Cases involving children call for a worksheet supporting the guidelines calculation. Our page on child support in Florida explains how that number is built.
- The parenting course. Under section 61.21 of the Florida Statutes, parties to a dissolution with minor children must complete the Parent Education and Family Stabilization Course before final judgment. The petitioner completes it within forty five days of filing and other parties within forty five days of service, unless the court excuses the deadline for good cause. Proof of completion is filed with the court.
- Mediation. Hillsborough County refers family cases to mediation, and the issues raised in the pleadings are generally mediated before a contested hearing is set. Judges expect to hear at the conference that mediation is scheduled or already done.
Mediation is a process you go through, not a service you hire. The mediator is neutral and represents neither spouse. Your attorney is the person at that table representing you. Our divorce page covers where mediation sits in the sequence of a Florida case.
What the day actually looks like
Plan to arrive early. Several cases are commonly set for the same time and called one at a time, so the hallway wait can run an hour or longer even though the hearing itself is brief. That wait is not wasted. It is often when the attorneys talk through the facts, test whether any issue can be narrowed, and agree on what to tell the court about scheduling.
When your case is called, your attorney gives the court the status: what is completed, what is pending, what is scheduled, and roughly how much time the case still needs. Judges look for evidence that the matter is progressing on dates that exist rather than intentions that do not.
What the court does next depends on that report. If mediation is already set, the judge may schedule another case management conference for a date after mediation, or ask the attorneys to contact the court for a setting if the case does not resolve there. The court may instead set a pretrial conference and a trial date, though that is less common at a first conference.
Dress as you would for any court appearance and be courteous to everyone in the room, including the bailiff and the clerk. If the judge does ask you something directly, which is uncommon, answer briefly and honestly. That is the whole of what is asked of you.
The case management changes people have been reading about
Florida's civil courts moved to a track based case management system with firmer deadlines and a tighter approach to continuances. Those changes sit in the Florida Rules of Civil Procedure, which do not apply to cases governed by the Family Law Rules, so a divorce, paternity, or support case is not sorted into the civil tracks. The underlying expectation is the same across Florida's courts, though: cases are supposed to move. Missed disclosure deadlines and unscheduled mediation are noticed.
What to do before your conference
Read the order all the way through and treat every item on it as a task with a date. Pull the financial documents mandatory disclosure requires rather than assembling them the week of the hearing. Complete the parenting course early if your case involves children, since it is easy to forget. If a parenting plan or time sharing schedule is in dispute, be ready to say what schedule you are asking for and why it fits your children's actual week.
Then ask your attorney for a short conversation before the date. Fifteen minutes covering what the conference is meant to accomplish and what will be said on your behalf removes most of the apprehension people carry into the courthouse.
If you have questions about an order you have received, or about where your case stands in Hillsborough County, you can reach Rechel & Associates at (813) 931-8111.