A settlement or pre-trial conference is a meeting between opposing sides of a lawsuit at which the parties attempt to reach a mutually agreeable resolution of their dispute without having to proceed to a trial.
Such a conference may be initiated through either party, usually by the conveyance of a settlement offer; or it may be ordered by the court as a precedent (preliminary step) to holding a trial.
In some courts, the rules require that before certain types of motions or petitions will be heard by the judge, the lawyers must "meet and confer"[1] to try to resolve the matter.
Section 3408 of the Civil Practice Law and Rules of New York now provides that the court shall hold a mandatory settlement conference for all loans for one to four family homes within sixty days following the date proof of service is filed with the county clerk.
[3] The foreclosure proceedings are effectively stopped until the referee or judicial hearing officer (JHO) in the settlement conference determines that the settlement conferences are concluded, either because the parties have successfully modified the home loan or obtained some other foreclosure alternative or the referee has determined that one of the parties has not satisfied its requirements under the law.