Yesterday I wrote about getting a continuance in King County. I wrote about what they are and what to say when you go about requesting them. Today, I am writing about Snohomish County continuances. To understand the way continuances work in Snohomish County, it’s important to understand how the case scheduling works first.
Filing A Petition Doesn’t Give A Trial Date
In Snohomish County family law cases, the court doesn’t give you a trial date upon filing your case. Instead, it leaves it up to the parties to request a trial. In order to request a trial, a party must file a note for trial confirmation with the court. If you haven’t done so, you don’t need a continuance because no trial date has been set. There is, however, an exception. If your case is more than 150 days old, the court will issue a trial date in your case “on its own motion” (in other words, automatically).
Trial Confirmations in Snohomish County
The week before the trial date, either party must tell the court that they are “ready for trial” by confirming the trial date. If no one confirms the trial date, your objective is achieved. The trial will not be calendared and thus you will not have a trial. Instead, the court will schedule a status conference to find out what is going on in the case a little later on in time.
Still need to continue your trial date?
Then you need to note a motion specifically requesting a continuance and outlining your reasons why the court should grant it. Fortunately, the reasons are very similar to King County’s reasons.
