Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

Re: Mandatory Settlement Conference

Since the MANDATORY settlement conference is a court proceeding, the non-appearing party could be held in contempt, unless there are good reasons not to show up. If there are, they should be submitted in a written declaration to the court and opposing counsel in advance, as a courtesy if nothing else.

The MSC usually is the last best opportunity to avoid trial.

Re: Mandatory Settlement Conference

The local rules of various county courts have different expressions of the rule or policy, but for the most part these rules call for the court to make an "order to show cause" why sanctions should not be imposed. The offending party must then appear before, or sometimes write to, the court to give an explanation and show why sanctions should not be imposed.

The range of possible sanctions is from nothing at all if the no-show party has a really good excuse, such as "Your honor, I was having an emergency heart bypass operation that morning" to a fine or an order to pay the other party's attorney fees wasted by the futile trip to court, on up to possibly an unfavorable judgment on one or more of the issues in the litigation. (The latter is very severe punishment, of course, and a so-called terminating sanction is imposed only after outrageous conduct. Plaintiffs are usually more severely sanctioned than defendants, since they are the ones who brought the matter into the court in the first place.

Another thing that can happen is if the failure to appear requires rescheduling trial, the party that did show up for the MSC may get its first choice of date for the rescheduled trial date