California Rules of Court 3.724: Meet and Confer Deadline and Topics

California Rules of Court, rule 3.724 requires every party in a general civil case to meet and confer at least 30 calendar days before the initial case management conference, and to cover a specific agenda that ranges from discovery scheduling to how electronically stored information will be handled.¹ The point is to force the parties to actually talk about the case before they walk into court, so the judge can set realistic deadlines the first time around.

The 30-Day Deadline and How the Meeting Happens

Unless the court orders otherwise, all parties must meet and confer no later than 30 calendar days before the date set for the initial case management conference.¹ The meeting can be in person or by telephone. The rule applies to every party, not just plaintiffs and primary defendants, so cross-defendants and any other appearing parties need to be included.

This is not a formality. The rule sets an agenda, and the case management statement each party files afterward will report on many of the same topics. Coming in without positions means the other side, or the judge, will set them for you.

Topics You Must Discuss Under Rule 3.724

Rule 3.724 requires the parties to discuss and try to resolve the following, in addition to all matters the court will address at the conference under rule 3.727:¹

Resolution of any existing discovery disputes and a schedule for completing remaining discovery.
Any anticipated motions and the underlying disputes those motions would raise, with an eye toward informal resolution.
Facts and issues that are not in dispute and that could support stipulations.
Facts and issues that are genuinely disputed, so the court can focus on the real fight.
Whether any claims or defenses can be narrowed or eliminated by motion or agreement.
Whether settlement is possible at this stage.
Dates when the parties and their attorneys will be unavailable for trial, with reasons.
Electronically stored information, covered in its own subdivision below.
All other matters that must be considered by the court at the conference under rule 3.727.

Trial availability is worth flagging. If you know a lead attorney has a conflict during a particular stretch, this is the moment to say so. The court will use what the parties report to set a trial date, and vague answers here often produce dates nobody can actually work with.

Electronically Stored Information

Rule 3.724 gives ESI its own subdivision because these questions rarely resolve themselves. The parties must discuss:¹

Preservation of discoverable electronic information.
The form or forms in which electronic information will be produced.
The time within which the information will be produced.
The scope of the electronic discovery, including custodians, date ranges, and search terms.
The method for asserting or preserving claims of privilege or work product, including whether privileged material inadvertently produced can be clawed back.
How to protect confidential or privacy-protected information, such as trade secrets or third-party data.
How the expense of producing electronically stored information will be allocated among the parties.

If the case has any meaningful volume of email, chat records, or business data, come to the meeting with a proposal on each of these points. Whichever side has thought harder about ESI usually shapes the discovery order.

How Rule 3.724 Connects to the Case Management Statement

People searching for rule 3.724 often actually want the Case Management Statement, form CM-110. Those are two different obligations. Rule 3.724 governs the meet and confer between the parties. Rule 3.725 governs the written statement each party files with the court no later than 15 calendar days before the conference, on Judicial Council form CM-110.²

They run in sequence. You meet and confer under 3.724, and then you report on many of the same topics on the CM-110 you file under 3.725. Two or more parties may file a joint statement instead of separate ones.³ The form asks about the status of pleadings and service, jurisdiction, insurance, ADR, discovery progress, expert witnesses, trial estimate, and trial preference, among other items. If you have not done the 3.724 meet and confer, filling out CM-110 honestly becomes difficult, because several sections ask what the parties have agreed to or discussed.

Where Rule 3.724 Sits in the Larger Framework

Rules 3.720 through 3.730 form the case management framework. Rule 3.720 sets the scope: the rules apply to every general civil case where the court sets a case management conference, though individual courts can exempt specific case types by local rule.⁴ Rule 3.727 lists the subjects the judge will address at the conference itself, including ADR referral and case scheduling.⁵ Rule 3.728 requires the court to issue a case management order after the conference setting deadlines for the rest of the case.⁶

Rule 3.724’s job in that sequence is upstream preparation. Everything the parties resolve, or fail to resolve, at the meet and confer flows into the CM-110 statements, then into the conference discussion, then into the order that governs the rest of the litigation. Once the case management order is entered, changing a deadline in it requires a motion and good cause, so decisions made or missed at the 3.724 stage tend to stick.

Consequences of Skipping or Mishandling the Meet and Confer

Failing to participate in the meet and confer, or filing a case management statement that shows you clearly did not, can produce sanctions. Courts have broad authority to impose monetary sanctions payable to the court or to the opposing party to cover expenses such as attorney fees. In more serious situations, a court may take action affecting the merits, such as dismissing a plaintiff’s claims or striking a defendant’s answer.

The softer consequence is just as real. A judge who sees an unprepared party at the first conference usually schedules more supervision, sets tighter deadlines, and gives less leeway later. The meet and confer is the cheapest opportunity in the case to influence how the court runs it.

Practical Preparation Checklist

Before the 3.724 meeting, work through your own answers to each item on the rule’s agenda. Know what discovery you have done, what you still need, and how long it will take. Identify motions you plan to file and be ready to explain the underlying dispute. Have a position on settlement, on ADR, and on trial length. For ESI, know what systems hold relevant data, what preservation you have in place, and what format you want to produce and receive. Bring your calendar and your lead attorney’s calendar so you can speak to trial availability with specifics rather than guesses.

The 30-day cutoff is measured backward from the conference date, so calendar it as soon as the conference is set. That leaves time to schedule the meeting, complete it, and prepare the CM-110 for filing 15 days before the conference.

1
Judicial Branch of California. California Rules of Court Rule 3.724 – Duty to Meet and Confer
2
California Courts. Case Management Statement (CM-110)
3
Judicial Council of California. Judicial Council Form CM-110 Case Management Statement
4
Judicial Branch of California. California Rules of Court Rule 3.720 – Application
5
Judicial Branch of California. California Rules of Court Rule 3.727 – Subjects to Be Considered at the Case Management Conference
6
Judicial Branch of California. California Rules of Court Rule 3.728 – Case Management Order