Special Master

A court-appointed individual, usually an attorney, who assists the court as a private judge during certain aspects of the case, e.g., discovery.

A court-appointed individual, usually an attorney,who assists the court in moving a case forward.
Problems relating to pretrial discovery often are handled by a special master who schedules and coordinates discovery. Such procedure is necessary where one or both parties fail to comply with discovery requests, or when the parties can’t agree on appraisers a special master can make the selection. Note that the special master is not a judge -- his opinions carry weight, but not the final word.