---
kind: "section"
citation: "33 C.F.R. § 20.501"
title: "33"
number: "20.501"
heading: "Conferences."
url: "https://uscodex.org/cfr/33/20.501"
---

# §20.501. Conferences.

- (a) Any party may by motion request a conference.
- (b) The ALJ may direct the parties to attend one or more conferences before or during a hearing.
- (c) The ALJ may invite interested persons to attend a conference, other than a settlement conference, as the ALJ deems appropriate.
- (d) The ALJ shall give reasonable notice of the time and place of any conference to the parties, and to interested persons if invited. A conference may occur in person, by telephone, or by other appropriate means.
- (e) Each party, and any interested person invited, shall be fully prepared for a useful discussion of all issues properly before the conference, both procedural and substantive, and be authorized to commit themselves or those they represent respecting those issues.
- (f) Unless the ALJ excuses a party, the failure of a party to attend or participate in a conference, after being served with reasonable notice of its time and place, waives all objections to any agreements reached in it and to any consequent orders or rulings.
- (g) The ALJ may direct that any of the following be addressed or furnished before, during, or after the conference:
  - (1) **Methods of service and filing.**
  - (2) **Motions for consolidation or severance of parties or issues.**
  - (3) **Motions for discovery.**
  - (4) **Identification, simplification, and clarification of the issues.**
  - (5) **Requests for amendment of the pleadings.**
  - (6) **Stipulations and admissions of fact and of the content and authenticity of documents.**
  - (7) **The desirability of limiting and grouping witnesses, so as to avoid duplication.**
  - (8) Requests for official notice and particular matters to be resolved by reliance upon the substantive standards, rules, and other policies of the Coast Guard.
  - (9) **Offers of settlement.**
  - (10) **Proposed date, time, and place of the hearing.**
  - (11) Other matters that may aid in the disposition of the proceeding.
- (h) No one may stenographically report or otherwise record a conference unless the ALJ allows.
- (i) During a conference, the ALJ may dispose of any procedural matters on which he or she is authorized to rule.
- (j) Actions taken at a conference may be memorialized in—
  - (1) A stenographic report if authorized by the ALJ;
  - (2) A written transcript from a magnetic tape or the equivalent if authorized by the ALJ; or
  - (3) **A statement by the ALJ on the record at the hearing summarizing them.**

## Notes

### Authority

Authority: 33 U.S.C. 1321; 42 U.S.C. 9609; 46 U.S.C. 7701, 7702; Department of Homeland Security Delegation No. 0170.1, para. 2(73).

### Source

Source: CGD 98-3472, 64 FR 28062, May 24, 1999, unless otherwise noted.