Can I visit a Federal District Court Case Mangement Conference?

September 6, 2014 4:36 PM

Are US Federal District Court Case Mangement Conferences open to the public? Does anything interesting happen in them?

I'm interested in the high tech employee anti-trust suit 5:11-cv-02509-LHK. Judge Koh agreed to reject the settlement and the defendants are appealing. There's a Case Management Conference this Wednesday at 2. The appeal was filed with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, so I suppose there isn't much for Koh to do/say about that. I know this will be covered adequately in the media, but I'm curious about the machinations. 02509 is first on the list of a lot of cases up for conferences. Does that actually mean it'll be heard first? I can only spend an hour or two if it's just going to be procedural mumbo jumbo.

Are a nice shirt/slacks/shoes enough or should I wear a jacket & tie to sit in the gallery? How early should I show up?

posted by morganw to Law & Government (5 answers total)

"Nice shirt/slacks/shoes" are fine for sitting in on and observing federal courts, which for the most part are open to the public during the entirety of the day's business. In my few years' experience practicing in the federal courts, case management hearings were generally conducted in open court (and not terribly interesting). Most judges in my district call the cases in the order they are printed on their sheet. However, you can always call the office of the relevant judge and ask if the court room is open to the public during the hearing, if you have any reason to believe it might be a closed hearing. The office will also be able to tell you if the judge typically calls the cases in order.

With the exception of the Supreme Court (and Cook County criminal courtrooms which are tiny), I have never been in a courtroom that was too full for spectators in my life. You will have to go through a metal detector/security line to get into the Federal courthouse, so give yourself 10-15 minutes for that and another 5-10 for finding your courtroom and you should be fine.
posted by crush-onastick at 4:47 PM on September 6, 2014 [1 favorite]

Where I clerked none of the civil case management hearings would be in open court. But you can always just call the judge's chambers to ask! They should be able to tell you. Probably will not be very interesting to you.
posted by yarly at 5:56 PM on September 6, 2014 [1 favorite]

I think you can go, but call the court and they will tell you!
posted by J. Wilson at 6:45 PM on September 6, 2014

Best answer: Does anything interesting happen in them?

No. The purpose of the case management conference is to set various case deadlines and the trial date. If watching lawyers look at their calendars and hearing them talk about scheduling issues is interesting to you, you should definitely attend.

I've reviewed the docket and the parties have already filed a joint case management statement that the court has already issued an order on, so I do not expect must to be discussed at the upcoming case management conference. There would be no reason to discuss the rejected settlement, although the fact of the appeal will surely be mentioned. I'd be surprised if it takes more than a few minutes. The room will probably be filled with other lawyers there for their case management conference.

It is hard to imagine how a scheduling conference would be of interest to anyone besides the parties. If you are interested in the case, read the appellate briefs as they are filed.

A nice shirt and slacks should be fine.
posted by Tanizaki at 8:39 PM on September 6, 2014

Everyone I've ever conducted has been by telephone - no courtroom appearance at all.
posted by BrooksCooper at 9:15 PM on September 6, 2014