This is the fifth  article in our series about King County Superior Court Case Schedules.  Last week we discussed the deadline for Hearing Motions to Change Case Assignment Area. Today we’re going to talk about the Status Conference.

The fifth event on your Case Schedule is a written in a fairly confusing way:

Status Conference [See KCFLR 4(e)]…

If “Confirmation of Issues” and response or joinder to the petition are not filed, all parties must appear at this hearing.

So what does this mean?  What if your Confirmation of Issues, and a response or joinder have been filed?  Do you have to go into court? The answer is no: if you and your spouse have filed all necessary documents, you do not actually have to attend the Status Conference.

But, if you haven’t turned in these documents, it’s off to the court house you go – unless you get the missing paperwork filed before the date for your status conference, more on that below.

Remember when we said that a status conference is the court’s equivalent of high school detention?  Allow us to explain a bit further:

Think of the various deadlines in your case (like the deadlines for the Response to Petition, Affidavit/Return of Service, and Joint Confirmation of Issues) as the homework assigned to you by the court.  The court assigns you these tasks in order to keep your case moving along without a lot of intervention by the court.  After all, you and your spouse are in the best position to keep your case moving along, and the court wants to avoid dealing with day-to-day management of most cases whenever possible.

So long as you get your homework in on time, the court won’t be too concerned with the progress of your case.   However, if you haven’t met all the important deadlines in your case by the date for Status Conference set out in your Case Schedule, the court is going to want to have a little chat with you.

How is the Status Conference like detention?  Well, if you haven’t done your homework, you need to show up at the courthouse at 9 AM, check in with the bailiff,  and then sit in a court room with lots of other people who also haven’t done their homework.  Then you will wait, sometimes for most of the morning, until it’s your turn to talk to the commissioner or judge running the court room that day.  Once it’s your turn you only have two good options:

(1) turn in your homework – better late than never – or

(2) explain to the court why you haven’t met your deadlines.  The court will then give you another date by which you need to get your documents in, as well as a date to come back if you still haven’t met your deadlines.

Although the court assigns a date by which you need to file your missing documents, you can still file your document after that date and avoid the status conference if you make sure to file relatively close to the deadline.  However, if you file your documents very late after the deadline, or very close to the date of the status conference, you should still go to your status conference in order to let the court know that you’re now in compliance with your Case Schedule.  This makes the court’s job easier, and helps you avoid the risk of being put on the non-compliance calender, which is more serious (sort of like being sent to the principal’s office) and means your case is at risk of being dismissed.