The Clerk’s Office- ex parte motions, applications and fee waiver requests 

1. Ex parte motions and applications-all ex parte motions and applications, including Conn. Gen. Stat. §46b-15 applications shall be brought to the clerk’s office. No party or attorney shall attempt to bring the application or motion to a judge directly. Said filings shall comply with the rules of practice.
2. All fee waiver requests shall be filed in the Clerk’s office. Please be sure to fully complete the fee waiver application.  Fee waivers must include a copy of a recent pay stub, worker’s compensation award letter or other proof of income.  If no income, an explanation of support is required.
    

Case Management
All matters shall have a signed, completed case management form on or before the case management date. Where both sides have entered an appearance (pro se or through counsel), they must both sign the form (counsel or the pro se); if one side will not sign the form, all must appear before the Presiding Judge on the case management date at 9:30 a.m.

1. If the matter is designated uncontested, the parties shall select the date for the uncontested hearing (any day, Tuesday through Friday) at 9:30 a.m. If there are children, a parenting plan signed by the parties in substantial compliance with JD-FM-199 shall be filed with the case management form.
2. If the matter is designated as limited contested, the parties shall select the dates for completion of discovery items and select a date for a pretrial (or mediation) as provided for on JD-FM-163. No judicial pretrial will be granted without leave of the Presiding Judge. Unless for extraordinary cause shown, matters shall not be pretried by more than one pretrial (or pretrial team). If there are children, a parenting plan signed by the parties in substantial compliance with JD-FM-199 shall be filed with the case management form.
3. If the matter is designated as fully contested, the parties and counsel must appear in court on the case management date. At that time, the preparation of the matter for settlement or trial and its scheduling for pretrial and trial will be reviewed with the Presiding Judge, who will then issue orders thereon.

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Status Conferences
Status conferences will no longer be routinely utilized by the court for every matter. They will be routinely utilized by the court for report back on only the following matters: 

1. Report back dates assigned for the completion of a family relations study/ evaluation or a private provider study/evaluation. Both parties and counsel must be present in court at these report back dates. Inasmuch as pretrial and trial dates will be selected at this time if there is no settlement, counsel and the parties should have their calendars with them.
    
2. Report back at the end of conciliation periods. If the matter is going to judgment, counsel should be prepared to schedule events necessary to bring the matter to judgment including the scheduling of pretrial and trial.
   
   Counsel (with notice to all in the case) may request a status conference through the family Caseflow Coordinator for good cause. In the discretion of the Presiding Judge, a status conference may be by telephone.

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Pretrials 
Each case is entitled to one pretrial. Family relations will pretry all pro se cases as well as other appropriate matters. Special masters teams will pretry the balance of the matters. Judicial pretrials are not routinely granted and will be assigned by the Presiding Judge if appropriate: after counsel request or sua sponte. 

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Standing Orders for ALL Pretrials
Attendance of parties and counsel at pretrials is mandatory. They shall provide for the pretrial the following:

• Current sworn financial affidavits, including detailed income information, a complete list of liabilities, fair market value of all assets and identification and current value of all retirement and employment benefits.
• Written claims for relief, including the following and other items as appropriate:
   
  • Parenting Plan
  • Alimony
  • Child Support
  • Property Division, including retirement benefits and division of liabilities
  • Life Insurance
  • Medical Insurance
  • Counsel Fees
  • Tax Issues
     
• Counsel and pro se parties are ordered to submit to opposing counsel or the opposing party documents in compliance with this order at seven (7) days before the scheduled pretrial. All parties and counsel are to appear promptly at the scheduled time for their pretrial.
• Immediately following this session, counsel and parties are to report to the family Caseflow Coordinator for further assignment. If the matter is settled it should go to judgment immediately or be scheduled for an uncontested hearing date which shall be within 10 days unless good cause is shown. If it has not settled, it will be set for a firm trial date(s). Counsel/parties must indicate to Caseflow the expected length of the trial. Continuances of trial dates will not be granted based upon scheduling conflicts; therefore, exercise care in trial date selection. Failure to report to Caseflow for a trial date before leaving the courthouse on the day of pretrial will result in a dismissal of the case or sanctions in the discretion of the Presiding Judge.

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Pretrials by Special Masters 
All counsel and parties assigned a special masters pretrial are ordered to attend. Counsel and pro se parties are ordered to exchange between themselves and submit to the special masters documents in compliance with these Standing Orders. The following documents shall be exchanged between counsel and pro se parties at least seven (7) days prior to the scheduled pretrial and submitted to the special masters at the time of the pretrial:

1. Current sworn financial affidavits, which include detailed income statements, a complete list of liabilities, fair market value of all assets and current value of all retirement and employment benefits.
2. Written proposed orders in accordance with Practice Book Sec. 25-30(c) which shall be comprehensive and shall set forth the party's requested relief. (See standing orders for all pretrials if you seek further guidance.)
3. If there are minor children, the parenting plan governing custody, parenting time and visitation (as the terminology may be appropriate) and a fully completed child support guidelines worksheet indicating the presumptive amount of child support and the appropriate percentages for child care and reimbursed medical expenses.
4. Copies of tax returns and W-2 statements for the past three years.
5. Appraisals, if any, of real or personal property (including closely held businesses), both tangible and intangible, where values are in dispute.
6. Pension valuations, if any, and recent pension statements.

Failure to fully comply with this order may subject the offending party to sanctions, including fines and the preclusion at trial of evidence and witnesses.

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Short Calendar 
All contested matters on short calendar must go to Family Relations before they will be heard to narrow the issues or come to agreement. All agreements must be in writing and signed by the parties and counsel. Matters that are purely legal issues need not go to family relations provided all parties agree there are no factual disputes that are a part of the hearing.

All parties and counsel must comply with the instructions printed on the short calendar for (1) procedures to follow to notify the court and the opposing party for cases to be marked ready, and (2) procedures at short calendar.

After 10:00 a.m., if the moving party is present and the other side has not appeared, the matter may be brought to the attention of the judge utilizing the "Memo to Clerk" form referenced in the short calendar printed instructions.

Matters will not routinely be continued to a date certain when they are in excess of one hour. All parties and counsel should assume that the matter will be heard by the court on its short calendar date. Rare exception will be made, for instance, for a party flying in from afar.

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Trial dates 
All parties and counsel must be prepared for trial on the assigned trial dates. Continuance requests will rarely be granted, and only for good cause shown to the Presiding Judge. Counsel and parties are responsible for procuring a trial management order from the Caseflow Coordinator at the time of assignment of trial date.

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Trial Management
Effective 9/02/2008, the Tolland Superior Court has implemented a new procedure for Trial Management.  This is done to insure that cases are ready for trial as scheduled. 

Under the new procedure, a status conference will be scheduled at 2:00 p.m. on the Thursday prior to the week that a case has been assigned for trial. If there are any unresolved discovery issues or there has been non-compliance with the trial management orders, all parties and counsel must appear at the status conference.  If there are no outstanding discovery issues, compliance with the trial management orders has been met, and the case will be proceeding to trial, counsel may call the family Caseflow Coordinator and mark the status conference off. 

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Trial Management Order 
Any party contemplating filing motions to seal documents or files or close the courtroom in accordance with P.B. § 25-59 and P.B. § 25-59A at the time of trial must submit such motions at least three (3) weeks prior to the scheduled trial date.

One week prior to the assigned trial date, counsel and pro se parties in the above captioned matter are ordered to submit to the trial judge through the family caseflow office and provide copies to all parties, documents in compliance with this Trial Management Order. The following documents shall be submitted: 

1. Current fully completed sworn financial affidavits which include detailed income statements, a complete list of liabilities, fair market value of all assets including current value of all retirement and employment benefits.
2. A list of pending motions including motions in limine and a statement of the legal nature of the disputed issues (e.g. alimony, custody, etc.).
3. A list setting forth the names and addresses of each witness to be called at trial, including the relationship of each witness to the case (e.g. party, fact witness, expert); and whether any witness must be scheduled to testify at a specific time/date of the scheduled trial dates.
4. If a family relations counselor is going to testify, the counselor must be alerted as to the trial dates as soon as they are assigned.
5. A list of exhibits reasonably expected to be introduced, indexed by number for plaintiff (i.e. Plaintiff’s Exhibit 1), letter for defendant (i.e. Defendant’s A), and roman numeral for minor child(ren) i.e. (I, II, III, etc.). The list shall briefly describe each exhibit and indicate whether any party objects to the admission of such exhibit. If there is an objection, the exhibit should be marked for identification.
6. If the parenting responsibility plan is agreed upon, a written stipulation detailing the agreement signed by the parties must be filed. If it is not, the party’s proposed parenting responsibility plan, including desired custodial language, shall be included in the written proposed orders.
7. Written proposed orders [in accordance with Practice Book § 25-30(c)] which shall be comprehensive and shall set forth the party’s requested relief.

Failure to fully comply with this order may subject the offending party to sanctions, including the preclusions of evidence and/or witnesses.

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Uncontested Dissolution Checklist
The following is a complete list of documents for Uncontested Dissolutions. Parties must prepare the documents that apply to their case.

• Dissolution of Marriage/Civil Union Report (Form JD-FM-181/181A) (C.P.B. Section 25-58)
  Used by the State to keep statistics on divorce.
• Plaintiff’s Financial Affidavit (Form JD-FM-6) (C.P.B. Section 25-30)
  Items left blank are assumed to be zero. The form must be signed and sworn to before a Notary or Commissioner of the Superior Court.
• Defendant’s Financial Affidavit (Form JD-FM-6) (C.P. B. Section 25-30)
  Items left blank are assumed to be zero. The form must be signed and sworn to before a Notary or Commissioner of the Superior Court.
• Affidavit Concerning Children (Form JD-FM-164) (C.P.B. Section 25-57)
  Must be signed and sworn to before a Notary or Commissioner of the Superior Court.
• Child Support Guidelines Worksheet (Form CCSG-1) (C.P.B. Section 25-30)
  Both sides of the form must be completed. It must be signed by the preparer.
• Affidavit Concerning Military Service (may be Form JD-FM-178) (must be in compliance with C.P.B. Section 17-21)
  Must be done if there is a non-appearing defendant.
• Advisement of Rights (Form JD-FM-71) (C.P.B. Section 25-30)
  Used when alimony or support is to be ordered. If the obligee waives the right to an immediate income withholding the reverse side of the form must also be completed and signed.
• Income Withholding Order (Form JD-FM-1)
  Complete when an immediate withholding order is issued. The clerk will have to review and authorize service of this form on the obligor’s employer. After service, in non IV-D cases, the originally served document and form JD-FM-150 must be sent to SES Center at the address on that form.
• Signed Dissolution Agreement or Stipulation.
  When the parties have an agreement on all issues, it must be reduced to writing. This can be a written agreement or can be done on Form JD-FM-172.
• Written Claims for Relief
  When there is a non-appearing defendant and the plaintiff seeks orders to be issued in addition to dissolution of marriage/civil union, the plaintiff must submit a complete written list of orders for review by the Judge.
• Parenting Education Program Certificate
  The program provider submits this to the court after the completion.

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