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Judge sent both parties an email asking us to call him and we all had conference call . Court if Philadelphia.
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DG, I'm in the Philly area, and admitted to the courts of Pennsylvania.
So, it's hard to suggest options "other than a lawyer". ICANN/NAF/WIPO don't have anything to do with whatever might be going on in a court. The only options one has when sued is hire a lawyer or do it yourself.
What the "it" might be, will depend on circumstances of the case. However, failure to appear in a proceeding relating to a domain name will normally result in a default judgment, and will further usually be implemented by the registrar without your having any say in the matter.
If you are in CA, and there is an action in a court in Philly, then the first question might be whether jurisdiction over you is appropriate. The trouble is that if you appear - and that can include telephonic appearance - the jurisdiction issue can easily fly right out of the window, since you have admitted to jurisdiction by participating on the substance of the case.
Now, once in a long while, when a judge has a pro se defendant, the judge may hold the plaintiff to proving personal jurisdiction over that defendant, but the court doesn't need to, and some will not, raise the issue on its own.
But, yes, courts do conduct telephonic hearings on preliminary matters.