Legal Question in Civil Litigation in New York

Re: special trial part

Generally, a special trial part is case and court specific. In your case you may want to visit e-Court site (see below) for the New York Unified Courts for information specific to your case. However, family court matters will not be displayed. https://iapps.courts.state.ny.us/caseTrac/jsp/ecourt.htm

Re: special trial part

First off, if you have an attorney, I would call him or her and press for details. If you are pro se (without attorney), do not miss the conference. Failure to appear for a conference can result in dismissal if you are a Plaintiff or other types of sanctions if you are a Defendant.

Despite being called the "Unified Court System", every court in every county of New York works differently. This lack of uniformity has caused and continues to cause quite a bit of confusion and frustration, especially among attorneys practicing in more than one venue. To make matters even more complicated, the Civil and District Courts (jurisdiction below $25,000.00) have their own rules!

Without knowing which county or which court, I can not give you a solid answer. However, I can tell you that, generally, there is not usually one, single "pre-trial" conference. Often there are several. The first is normally the Preliminary Conference wherein the parties set-out a discovery schedule. There then may be one or more Compliance Conferences or none at all. The Court schedules these to make sure the case is not stagnating. Once discovery is complete and the case is on the trial calendar, the court (again, depending on the County) may schedule one, two or even several Settlement Conferences.

Even after all routine settlement conferences have failed bear fruit, the trial judge will usually hold a final settlement conference to see if he can help bring the matter to a close.

If you would like further assistance, feel free to contact me.