A settlement conference is a session the court arranges so the parties can try to resolve a divorce without trying it.
No Statewide Rule Creates One
The phrase “settlement conference” appears nowhere in Georgia’s Uniform Superior Court Rules, and no statute establishes one. So there is no single statewide answer to whether you have to attend.
What the statute does say is who may send you. Under OCGA 19-5-1(b), in a county that has established an alternative dispute resolution program under the Georgia Court-annexed Alternative Dispute Resolution Act, “the judge may, prior to trial, refer all contested petitions for divorce or permanent alimony to the appropriate alternative dispute resolution method.” Where a county has no such program, the judge may still refer a disputed divorce case to a method that is reasonably available without additional cost to the parties.
Whether You Must Go Depends on Your County
Rule 1.2 of the Uniform Superior Court Rules lets courts issue standing orders on matters the uniform rules do not address, and it names orders governing or requiring alternative dispute resolution as an example. That is why practice varies from circuit to circuit. The same rule provides that no person is to be prejudiced for failing to comply with a standing order they had no actual notice of.
What Happens There
In Swanson v. Swanson, 276 Ga. 566 (2003), a divorce was referred to the Cobb County Superior Court’s ADR program, and the parties attended a mediated settlement conference that ended with both of them signing a three-page handwritten settlement agreement.
That is the usual shape of it. Even so, the order making that handwritten agreement the order of the court was later reversed, so what you sign in the conference room is not necessarily the last word.
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This post is a quick overview of the law and is not intended as legal advice. Please feel free to contact our office for a consultation if you have questions about this or any other legal aspects regarding your case!