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Pretrial Order (Judge Butler) - Alabama
| Pretrial Order (Judge Butler) Form. This is a Alabama form and can be used in Southern District District Court Federal . |
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ORDER It is ORDERED that effective April 1, 1995 the following special requirements shall prevail forpretrials set before Judge Charles R. Butler, Jr. 1. Counsel shall confer and shall prepare a single proposed Pretrial Order in the formattached, which must be filed with the Clerk of Court by 5:00 p.m. on Wednesday, one week prior topretrial. 2. Counsel shall make a genuine effort to stipulate as to the following: A. Jurisdiction B. Propriety of parties, correctness of identity of legal entities, necessity for appointment of guardian ad litem, guardian, administrator etc., and validity of appointment if already made, and correctness of designation of party as partnership, corporation or individual d/b/a trade name. C. If the above be not agreed to, counsel shall certify the question to the Court for resolution at the conference. 3. Settlement. At the Conference counsel will discuss settlement potential with the Court.The Court expects that counsel will have conferred prior to the pretrial conference and will have engagedin meaningful settlement discussion. Counsel should be prepared to discuss the status of any settlementnegotiations, including the last settlement proposal made by you and to you; and also whether any form ofAlternate Dispute Resolution would be beneficial to resolving the case prior to trial. 4. The proposed Pretrial Order shall contain: A. A comprehensive written statement of uncontested facts, in sufficient form that if the Court elects to do so, it can be read to the jury. B. A written statement of contested facts that will explain to the Court the nature of the parties disputes. It is not necessary for the parties to set forth every possible variation of every factual dispute involved in the case for fear that they may waive the presentation of some evidence at trial. What the Court is interested in is a concise statement of what fact or facts are in dispute that relate to the legal issues (see C below) that are to be tried in the case. 1. Whenever an alleged breach of contractual obligation is in issue, a statement of the act(s) or omission(s) relied upon by the party or parties asserting such breach. <<<<<<<<<********>>>>>>>>>>>>> 2 2. Whenever negligence or wantonness is an issue, a statement of the act(s) or omission(s) relied upon by the party or parties asserting same. 3. Whenever the meaning or interpretation of a contract or other writing is in issue, each party shall separately state all facts and circumstances relied upon which serve to aid in the interpretation. 4. Whenever duress, fraud or mistake is an issue, the facts and circumstances relied upon by the parties as constituting the claimed duress or fraud or mistake (see Federal Rule of Civil Procedures 9(b)) shall be specified with particularity. 5. Whenever a conspiracy is charged the party contending same shall set forth the facts and circumstances relied upon as constituting the conspiracy, listing the names of all conspirators making up the conspiracy, together with a narrative of the testimony of such witnesses in regard to the facts of the conspiracy.C. The triable issue or issues. State the triable issue or issues in the context of the facts orfactual disputes in the case (e.g., whether, if the defendants vehicle crossed the center line, suchconstituted negligence; whether, if the defendant failed to deliver the goods by a certain date, thisconstitutes a breach of the contract; whether the defendants actions in terminating the plaintiffsemployment were racially motivated).D. Rule 16(d) requires the parties to formulate a plan for trial, including a program forfacilitating the admission of evidence, so that the Court may consider an order establishing areasonable limit on the time allowed for presenting evidence (R.l6(c) (15)). Therefore the partiesshould include in the pretrial order, not only an estimate of the number of trial days required, butalso a statement of the number of witnesses they reasonably expect to testify on behalf of eachparty. (See 4(H) below). E. A statement indicating whether the case is a jury or non-jury case. If a jury case, whetherthe jury trial is applicable to all aspects of the case or only to certain issues, which shall bespecified. In view of Rule 48 allowing not fewer than six and not more than twelve jurors, theparties are to include a statement of their respective (or collective if they can agree) positions withregard to the number of jurors they request be selected to sit in this case. If the parties are unableto agree, the Court will cause a jury of eight to be selected. (In jury cases, counsel shall file with the Court, not later than one week prior to the beginning of civil jury term in which the case is set, copies of all proposed jury instructions and any special questions for voir dire examination of the jury venire, and shall furnish opposing counsel a copy of same. In addition, all motions in limine must be filed with the Court not later than one(l) week prior to the beginning of trial, except with respect to matters which could not have been anticipated by counsel by such time.)<<<<<<<<<********>>>>>>>>>>>>> 3F. A list and description of any legal issues or motions pending or contemplated.G. If a party desires to offer deposition testimony into evidence at the trial, he shall designateonly those relevant portions of same which he wishes read at trial and advise opposing counsel ofsame. Opposing counsel shall then designate those relevant portions of such deposition which hewishes to offer in evidence. All objections to any such testimony shall be made in writing andsubmitted with the Joint Pretrial Document so that the Court may consider whether ruling on suchobjections will facilitate either the conduct of the trial or result in the disposition of certainevidentiary matters that may assist continuing settlement negotiations. The parties should bring tothe Courts attention at the pretrial conference whether any specific rulings by the Court will sofacilitate the conduct of the trial or ongoing settlement negotiations.H. Counsel shall list the names and addresses of all witnesses who shall or who theyreasonably expect will be called to testify at the trial. It is the desire of the Court that such witnesslists be kept to a reasonable minimum and additional witnesses may be added, only for good causeshown and on written motion. With respect to expert witnesses, counsel shall furnish the Court andopposing counsel with a curriculum vitae of such e
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