What is Docket Day?
Docket day is a designation for the particular day of an interval in which a court has specified that persons having business with the court are to appear, and as a result such people actually are heard.
It is as though the court said, "I am going to be in this courthouse, so I expect you to come here on this day, and if you do, and have something you want to present to me, I will hear you."
Docket day can be set at the beginning of a case, or a judge can designate a docket day for a case by calling it for hearing on the day people already know they will be in court. Assume for the moment that a judge calls a case in which a party is represented by a lawyer to NOT be heard until a future day of the week that ordinarily is set aside for hearings, simply to accommodate the party represented by the lawyer. It is as though the judge said, "Although people having an interest in this case will be here today and tomorrow, my docket day is some day later in the week , so I will defer hearing the case until that day."
Merely entering an order on the case does not mean that a court matter has been heard. Actually, entry of an order by signing it and recording it in the Court Clerk’s Office at the courthouse is not a hearing. A full hearing on the merits of a case is conducted by a judge, who is required to hear a person having business with the court on the day period set aside for presentation of the case.
If a judge has not heard me on the day of the week set aside for hearing cases, then I respectfully ask to have my case placed on the docket as soon as possible.
If it appears that a docket day will not be called for several days, I will file something simple asking the court to hear me concerning payment of support on the next scheduled day of the week.
If I have asked to be placed on the docket without getting a response, I may elect to file something even simpler, perhaps stating that I am here today to be heard on the matter of payment of current child support.
Docket Day’s Purpose
The purpose of a docket day is to ensure that a case is moving forward in the legal system. Every judicial circuit in our region has set guidelines for the management of cases. Without a set order for the movement of cases through the system, there are likely to be substantial delays for everyone involved. Rulings would take much longer and that often translates to more time and money wasted.
Some of the specific purposes related to the scheduling of a docket day are:
• The court wants to make sure that the parties have engaged in discovery or are at least moving towards that end. In many cases, where there is not an opposing party to issue written questions to, one party will contact the other to ask for what they had for breakfast. This is sufficient to meet discovery requirements in many cases and allows the process to move forward towards resolution.
• The court’s goal is to get the parties to make progress towards settlement. If there is no chance or inclination to settle the case, then the parties should set the trial date sooner rather than later.
• The court sets the tone for getting a schedule in place so that the parties know when everything needs to occur in order to bring the case to conclusion. Usually, at this point, experts have been identified and their reports can be scheduled.
• The clerk will assign a discovery expiration date so that at the end of the time allotted, the case will be ready for trial or an alternate means of resolution such as mediation.
• Attorney fees will not be paid until the case is finished so all parties should get to work on their cases.
• The court will identify the best date for a trial or settlement. An attorney should prepare a final order for entry by the judge. If everyone is attempting to reach a final resolution, the case should be set for trial and the judge should indicate whether the case will be settled or tried.
Procedures on Docket Day
On the day of an uncontested and/or agreed divorce, the Courts will pick their divorces they are going to handle that day and/or you are going to settle in a mediation so you can eventually get your divorce. The Courts have a certain way of doing it.
Starting in the early morning at 9:00 or 10:00 the Courts will start calling divorces in order. As an example, we’ll use Court #5 again.
The family law matters are generally placed on the docket in the following order: (1) Temporary Restraining Orders/Temporary Orders; (2) Final Hearings; and (3) Mediations. Most of the time the case that you are set in court for is called about 1 or 2 pm for a hearing. Therefore, many times the attorney’s set multiple cases on the same court day.
For instance, if we look at court #5, the Court staff will assign each divorce to the various District Court Associate Judges. If you have a case set in court #5, you are assigned a Judge to appear before that day. Each Judge runs his/her courtrooms differently, and therefore, you should ask your attorney which Judge you have been assigned to and what the Judge’s regular procedures are for a divorce.
In general, if you are assigned to the Court at 9:00 am, 90% of the time the Judge will hear the Temporary Restraining Order and Temporary Orders from 9:00 am to 11:00 am. They will identify each case on the docket, call it forward, and the cases take about 15 minutes each. Depending on the number of cases on the docket, the Temporary Hearing causes most judges’ courts to run after lunch and into the evening.
If you are set for a final hearing you will be assigned in front of this same Judge. I strongly advise having an attorney represent you. Generally, the District Court Associate Judges will begin final hearings at 2:00 pm and will work until they have completed the final hearings for that day, generally until 5:00 or 6:00 pm.
If you have a mediation scheduled, you will appear in the Associate Judge’s Court at 1:00 pm for your mediation and it will be your responsibility to appear at the mediation center or have your attorney do it for you. At the mediation they will attempt to settle the case completely for you to finalize the divorce through a mediator.
Regardless of the type of case you are in the courtroom for, the Court will allow you to proceed after the Judge calls your case. You will go forward with your case and present your evidence to the Associate Judge. The Associate Judge will have a staff member who will take notes with regards to the temporary orders or final orders.
Generally, the Judge will sign the proposed Temporary Restraining Order/Temporary Orders or Final Decree of Divorce at some point during the day. Depending on how busy the Judge is with their other cases will depend if the Judge will set the case for a date in the future to have a prove up (i.e., get on a permanent basis) or if they will have a special setting with the Court to finalize the divorce on a later date.
Docket Day Preparation Tips
To prepare for docket day, you want to gather any documentation that might be important regarding your case. For example, let’s say you have shared possession of a child and you think that the other party is not following the agreed schedule. If that is the case, you want to document it. If you can take screenshots on your phone, that could be very helpful. If you are exchanging emails with someone, you want to save those along with the dates and times. You want to look to see if someone has posted on social media something related to your case.
Another thing to do to prepare is to have your account information. If there are any bills that the court typically awards, if they have been paid or not, you could have anything in writing that shows that something wasn’t paid .
You also want to determine if you are able to meet the requirement of the judge. In some cases, a judge might list upcoming court dates on its website. You would want to check there.
Sometimes you can find out from the court staff whether your particular judge is keeping appointments that day. A lot of time judges leverage their clerks and staff to find out and balance where people have checked in and where people are.
You can also check the court’s website or phone system for the structural way the court is going to handle its cases that day. A lot of the local courts have gone as far as posting a docket list online, telling people who is scheduled at what time, what courtroom, etc. That can make it easier for you to know the time and date to show up.
The Role of Attorneys on Docket Day
When a court date rolls around that is just a docket call, attorneys handle the matter somewhat differently than when it is a trial date. Their job on these days is often to take a slightly less active role in moving the case forward. This is especially true of attorneys for the company. For instance, these attorneys don’t go to any of the mediations unless the mediation is specifically set on a date that has been allocated to their docket. When that happens, they may have to do some back and forth with the other attorneys and the Judge to get the other side to agree to these dates. It isn’t common for a lawyer to actively participate in mediation of these cases if there is no pretrial conference scheduled.
It is the lawyers for the plaintiff and the defendants who are the main parties that will be meeting. In these meetings there will be decisions about the course the case is going to take. An attorney may offer to settle a case as a plaintiff. In this case, the lawyer should never be blamed by a client for trying to negotiate a case. It is their job to offer a healthy negotiating tactic to the client.
If you are the defendant, you must be able to meet your obligations as the defendant. You need to go through the trial or find a way to make the case go away. This means that the insurance carrier may have to contribute more to the case if that is what will settle it. Some clients may even be the type who would like to settle it early. The attorney cannot make a decision without consulting with the client to see whether or not this is indeed what they want.
This is really the benefit of these days. So long as the lawyers are able to keep the client up to date on what is happening, it should help with making the case move day in a positive direction.
Outcomes and Next Steps
The docket day in court meeting should result in at least one of three potential outcomes.
You will be scheduled for a hearing at a later date – If your case is a PA divorce case or a PA child custody case, then the judge will most likely schedule you for a hearing or trial day to resolve the outstanding matters that were discussed at the docket day meeting. This hearing date should be firm, as the judge will want to resolve your case quickly.
You will have to wait for an opening on the trail list – If there are no open slots on the trial list, due to other cases scheduled for trial or hearings that might take up multiple days, then you will have to wait until another opening occurs, which could take several months . Your lawyer will ask the judge that any interim issues, and even discovery disputes that might come up before the eventual hearing date, be addressed during the interim.
The judge may be close to making a decision on your case – Similar to the first outcome but even more expedited, there may be a situation where the judge merely has to take a few weeks or months to issue a decision in a case and get everyone an order with their specific requirements. Your lawyer is entitled to speak with the judge about when to expect the written decision to be released. That way, if certain issues or interpretations arise during the interim, your lawyer can attempt to resolve them without having to go through intensive litigation.