Case Management Conference

• A case management statement is a document that is filed with the court in advance of a court-ordered case management conference (CMC). During the CMC, the parties and their attorneys meet with the judge to attempt to resolve the matter without the need for a trial, to reduce the number of issues to be tried, or to set the trial rules. The CMC is an informal meeting that does include the use of witnesses or evidence.
  
  

CMC Statement

• The CMC Statement is a relatively brief legal document that states basic information regarding the case. In addition to listing the court retaining jurisdiction, the names of the parties involved in the litigation, and describing what the case is about, the CMC provides information about the trial itself (e.g. trial date if set; whether it is a jury trial; the attorneys trying the case). In the CMC the parties also indicate whether they are willing to attempt to settle the matter using alternative dispute resolution (e.g. mediation, arbitration). The CMC also discloses information about any insurance policy that may provide coverage for the incident, other cases that may have a relation to the instant case, and the parties' discovery and motion plans.
  
  

Legal Correspondence

• Legal correspondence are letters that are written and exchanged between opposing attorneys in a case. This correspondence does not need to be filed with the court, but may be referred to you in court documents and the CMC. For example, before an attorney may file a motion to compel responses or a production from opposing counsel, the moving attorney must attest that he attempted to informally resolve the issue with opposing counsel through a meet and confer letter before asking the court to solve the problem. Courts encourage and require attorneys to try and solve their differences independently before seeking and utilizing judicial resources.
  
  

Overlap

• The CMS requires information about legal correspondence. The court requires the parties to indicate if they have met and conferred on applicable subjects and if they have not, to explain why they have not attempted to resolve these issues on their own initiative. If an agreement has been reached as a result of meeting and conferring, the terms of the agreement must be disclosed on the CMS.