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→The purposes of judicial case conferences
====The purposes of judicial case conferences====
The basic purposes of JCCs are to review the claims each side is making, determine where there is agreement, and see whether there is anything short of trial that will resolve the claims in dispute. JCCs are relatively informal meetings, and in some courthouses everyone sits at a large table with the judge or master who is hearing the JCC. JCCs are private. Only the parties and their lawyers are allowed to be there. They are also held on an a confidential, off-the-record basis, so that nothing said in the JCC can be used against anyone later on, like at an application or at trial.
Different judges and masters handle JCCs in different ways. Some judges and masters are very hands-on; others take a more distant, reserved approach. Some are very keen to try to settle a dispute, and will work almost like a mediator; others are content to leave areas of disagreement alone and focus on getting a resolution in place on the issues that can be settled instead. Some judges and masters will provide an informal opinion about the likely result of a particular court proceeding; others won't. There are no guarantees that a JCC will be run in any particular way at all.