Rule 1.04 Prehearing Conference

An appellate court can call a prehearing conference before your appeal is fully argued. This means the judges (or someone working for the court) can ask the attorneys on both sides to meet and talk about the case ahead of time. The goal is to narrow down the issues that actually need to be decided, so the court does not waste time on points both sides already agree on.

After this meeting, the court writes up an order that lists what was discussed and spells out which issues are still open for the appeal. This order becomes the roadmap for the rest of the case. Once it's issued, both sides have to follow it.

The only way this order can change later is if following it would create a serious unfairness, called "manifest injustice." So while the order is meant to stick, the court still has some flexibility if sticking to it would cause a real problem for one of the parties.