Rule 1.906.Civil trial-setting conference

Rule 1.906 puts a case on a schedule early. Except in domestic relations proceedings, the clerk has to send a notice of civil trial-setting conference to every party not in default within 21 days after any defendant has answered or appeared, using the standard form the rule specifies. That notice sets the conference no earlier than 35 days and no later than 50 days after the answer or appearance.

The rule does not let a missed notice become an excuse. Parties are responsible for getting a timely trial-setting conference regardless of whether they received the clerk's notice, and failing to receive it is not grounds to avoid a dismissal for want of prosecution under Rule 1.944. A party who wants the conference sooner can move for an earlier date, as long as notice goes to everyone else.

At the conference, the court and parties use a Trial Scheduling and Discovery Plan to set the trial date. The official Comment explains what happens next: once the court or its designee has that plan in hand and has held the conference, it is expected to enter an order scheduling trial that approves, supplements, or modifies the plan's terms as needed. If a trial does get continued, the court has to set it to a specific new date rather than an open-ended one, and unless the court orders otherwise, whatever deadlines were already in place keep applying.