Legal Question in Family Law in New York
My spouse filed the Request for Judicial Intervention along with a Request for a Preliminary Conference on November 18th (2009). From what I've ready about Preliminary Conferences they are supposed to be held (and I thought statutorily required) to be held within 45 days of the date of the RJI. Yet here we are entering January and I have not be notified of any date by the Court at which it is being held, and I checked with the court last week and they told me that a postponement has not been sought.
Thus my questions are: Is the 45 day time frame not required or standard? If the Preliminary Conference is supposed to be held early in the trial then what could be delaying its scheduling?
1 Answer from Attorneys
Preliminary conferences are ordinarily scheduled within 45 days of the RJI. However, given the shortage of judges in the matrimonial parts and the heavy caseload, the court often runs behind.
The PC is not part of the trial - it's a scheduling event at which the trial date and other key dates will be set. Also the court usually tries to settle as much of a case as it can at the PC, and often entire cases can be disposed at the conference.