10JDCR 4.8

(a) Pretrial settlement conference. In all civil matters except those involving domestic relations matters (see Section 6), a party or its representative shall appear before the court for a pretrial settlement conference. Unless excused, all parties and their attorneys shall be present together with any other person necessary for settlement authority.

(b) Purpose. The purpose of the pretrial settlement conference is to facilitate settlement. Additional matters that may be discussed at the pretrial settlement conference include, but are not limited to, the following:

(1) The necessity or desirability of amendments to the pleadings;

(2) Requirements with respect to trial briefs;

(3) Requirements with respect to requests for jury instructions and suggested special questions to be asked by the court on voir dire in cases to be tried by jury;

(4) The number of expert witnesses to be permitted to testify on any one subject; and

(5) Any other matter that may be relevant to the parties, process, pleading, or proof, with a view to simplifying the issues and achieving a just, speedy, and inexpensive determination of the case.

(c) Trial judge or senior judge to conduct.

(1) For those matters set for a jury or bench trial, the pretrial settlement conference may be held with the trial judge upon stipulation by all parties to the action, or the parties may upon written request ask that the conference be held before a senior judge. A stipulation by the parties to the trial judge holding the settlement conference constitutes a waiver of any claim that the trial judge has an actual or implied bias solely by reason of the trial judge’s participation in the pretrial settlement conference.

(d) Privileged. Any discussion concerning settlement shall be entirely without prejudice and may not be referred to during the trial or in any arguments or motions, unless the court for good cause permits it.

(e) Orders. Upon conclusion of the pretrial settlement conference, if not previously set for trial, the court will set the case for trial and enter such further orders as the status of the case may require.

(f) Failure to appear or participate. Failure of any counsel to appear at the pretrial conference or to participate therein in good faith shall result in the court making such orders as deemed appropriate, including the imposition of appropriate sanctions.

(g) Scheduling. The filing of the NRCP 16.1 joint case conference report shall activate the scheduling process.