pretrial
pree trahy uhl
- n (law) a conference held before the trial begins to bring the parties together to outline discovery proceedings and to define the issues to be tried; more useful in civil than in criminal cases
- Compulsory pretrial meetings may expedite early settlements.
- At the pretrial conference both plaintiff and defendant state what they expect to prove in the trial, thus eliminating tricky surprise.
- During the pretrial hearings, he even suggested she might have been "confused" while giving her pretrial testimony.