Domestic - Paternity Settlement & Pretrial Conferences

All Domestic -Paternity Settlement Conferences will be IN PERSON.  WebEx will no longer be available.  Please refer to your notice for direction.

For IN PERSON attendance for Settlement Conferences in Franklin County, please check-in at Court Administration, located on:     

  • Second floor of the Franklin County Courthouse:
    • 1016 N. 4thAve Pasco, WA 99301

Combined Settlement and Pretrial Conferences. In person attendance at settlement conference and pretrial conference is mandatory for all parties and their counsel. A combined settlement and pretrial conference shall be held in all contested family law/domestic relations cases. The purpose of the conference is to explore settlement of all issues and to identify disputed issues. Parties are not bound by the settlement recommendations of the Court but are required to attend and participate.

Attendance by all counsel and Parties is Mandatory. Failure to appear at the settlement conference, without prior permission of the court, shall constitute an act of default. The present party may file a motion for default pursuant to CR 55. Notice of default and the proposed final documents are required pursuant to Court/Civil Rules to be served on the opposing party.

Submitting Position Statements. Both parties shall exchange position statements prior to the Settlement Conference. The Parties shall submit with Court Administration (or eMotion) and serve/exchange their position statement, three (3) days prior to the settlement conference. Position statements shall not be filed in the court file. No fax copies will be accepted by the court. See Position Statement for Settlement Conference as prescribed by the court. 

Court Imposed Sanctions. Failure to appear at the settlement conference (without prior permission of the court) or failure to timely submit a Position Statement, may subject the non-complying party and/or their attorney to a sanction of $200, paid to the Clerk of the Court. Payment shall be due within twenty (20) days of the order. A party or attorney may petition the Court for relief from sanctions, which shall be filed within the same 20-day period and shall be noted for hearing.

If No Settlement is Reached. At the conclusion of the settlement conference, if the case is not then settled, a Joint Pretrial Statement and Pretrial Order will be prepared cooperatively between the parties and the Court. The Pretrial Order must be signed by the Judicial Officer. Exhibit and witness lists shall be filed and served, and exhibits served, not later than two (2) weeks before the trial date, unless otherwise stated in the Pretrial Order. See Order re: Pretrial Statement as prescribed by the court.

NOTE:  Due to insufficient notice to parties resulting from the recent statewide outage, the Benton and Franklin Counties Domestic & Parentage Conferences scheduled between 11/22 and 12/13 are being rescheduled. These conferences will be rescheduled based on the availability of the Court’s calendar. We appreciate your patience and understanding.

[Updated November 21, 2024]