Many counties in Florida, and particularly Hillsborough County, an initial Case Management Conferences (or �CMC�) is automatically scheduled by the Clerk of Court at the time that the divorce or paternity case is filed. The CMC is usually scheduled for a specific date and time about ninety days after the date of filing, and you will know about the scheduled CMC from an order setting it, which is automatically entered when the case is filed. The intervening 90 days gives litigants time to get their cases moving in the right direction. There are many things that need to be done within the first ninety days and the purpose of the initial CMC is for the judge to make sure everything is progressing how it should.
The initial Case Management Conference is not a time for any or all of the case to be tried. Rather, it is an opportunity for the judge to ensure that the procedural requirements existing at that point in time have been met. If the judge feels that the case is not moving in the right direction, the parties can be ordered to schedule and attend mediation, to comply with discovery requirement, or anything else that the judge deems appropriate to get the case moving along. Some judges will automatically schedule another Case Management Conference to make sure that court orders are being followed and to insure that the case is progressing as it should. If the parties have already come to an agreement that has been reduced to writing and they wish to finalize their divorce, the Case Management Conference can be used to present the necessary testimony and evidence to �prove up� the case and have the Final Judgment signed.
In a Hillsborough County, particularly Tampa divorce cases, both parties and their attorneys must appear at the first Case Management Conference, so you will want to make sure you put the date on your calendar as soon as you know when the CMC will be held. You will also want to make arrangements with your employer or instructors so that you have the necessary time off. Although the CMC of your individual case will probably only take ten minutes, these types of hearings are scheduled in blocks of time. Therefore, although your case may be scheduled for a 9:00 CMC, it might not be heard until 10:00 because there might be a dozen or more other cases scheduled for the same time period. The result is that you may be waiting for an hour or so to have your case called for hearing.
Lastly, it is also a good idea is to schedule a meeting with your attorney a week or so before the CMC to make sure that everything is on schedule and ask any questions that you have.
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