This is the sixth  article in our series about King County Superior Court Case Schedules.  Last week we discussed your Status Conference.  Today we’re going to talk about a number of other important deadlines on your case schedule.

You’ll notice that as you get closer and closer to your trial date (the last date on your Case Schedule), there are more and more deadlines to meet.  And, those deadlines are much closer to each other in time than earlier deadlines.  The common goal of virtually all of these deadlines is to provide the parties and the court with information about what to expect from each party at trial.

• Disclosure of Possible Primary Witnesses. If you are planning to call witnesses at your trial, you must let the other party know who you intend to call, and what you expect them to talk about.   You should include any witnesses you think you might call.  You won’t be obligated to call every witness on this list, but if you don’t disclose all your possible witnesses in advance, you risk being unable to call them at trial.

• Change in Trial Date. Pretty simple right?  This the last date by which you can request a change in your trial date and get a new date with relative ease.  However, if this date passes and circumstances arise that make it necessary to change your trial date, you aren’t out of luck.  You can still ask the court to change it if you provide a good reason why you cannot go to trial on your scheduled trial date.  You can also agree to continue your trial with the other party.  So, what this deadline really means is that once it passes, you have to work a little harder to get a new trial date.

• Disclosure of Possible Additional Witnesses. Another deadline for disclosure of the identities of people you might want to call as a witness at trial.  If you’ve thought of a few more people you might want to call as witnesses since you sent out your Primary Witness List, you’ll need to provide these additional names to the other side.

• Discovery Cut off. This is one of the most important deadlines on your case schedule.  If you miss it, you lose your opportunity to gather evidence for trial.  You see, under the court rules, all parties in any lawsuit are entitled to request evidence from each other but only within a certain time frame prior to trial.  This evidence gathering process is called “discovery.”  The means by which you can gather evidence can take many forms and include submissions of written questions (or “interrogatories”), requests for production of documents, and depositions.  Each of these discovery devices has their own deadline for completion.  For example, interrogatories must be completed by the answering party within 30 days of receipt of the request.  In addition, the person sending the interrogatories must do so at a time when the response will be completed before the discovery cut off.  Failure to do this will let the other party off the hook for answering your request.  So, it’s very important that you be familiar with the Civil and Local Rules that govern discovery – in King County, you should be particularly familiar with LR 37.

• Alternative Dispute Resolution. This is the deadline by which you and the other side should attempt to resolve your case out of work by participating in some form of alternative dispute resolution, such as a settlement conference or mediation.  However, you really can reach an agreement with the other party out of court any time up to and including the day of your trial.  The court almost always favors settlement over litigation, so even if this date has passed, you and your ex can still attempt to reach agreement at any time.

• Exchange of Witness Lists. Now that trial is getting closer, you and the other side must exchange official witness lists, so that each of you knows exactly who will testify at trial, and what each witness will testify about.  The exchange of witness lists also gives each of you the opportunity to prepare questions for every witness who will testify, including the witnesses of your opposing party.

• Joint Confirmation of Trial Readiness. This only applies to you if your case does not involve parenting of minor children.  This is simply a deadline by which you and your ex need to provide the court with details about your trial such as how long you expect your trial to take, whether any of the parties cannot attend trial due to a scheduling conflict, and what issues will be litigated.  Note that if you do not submit this document on time, you risk dismissal of your case.

• Joint Statement of Evidence. This is a document created and signed by both parties, which tells the court what evidence each side intends to present at trial.  This way the court knows what to expect to hear and see at trial.