Santa Clara Superior Court Filing Rules

Each party must file a Settlement Conference Statement at least 10 calendar days before the MSC, or 15 calendar days if service is by mail.

An edited set of jury instructions must be submitted at the earliest possible time after the conclusion of in limine motions.

Any non-CACI or pinpoint instructions must be submitted in writing.

The moving party must send a copy of the application to FCS.

Drop box filings are checked once per court day at 4:00 p.m. and deemed received at that time on retrieval day.

In bench trials, counsel must provide the Court with hard copies of specified pretrial documents by 12:00 pm on the last court day before trial.

If no court reporter is retained, counsel must meet and confer daily to agree on a settled statement, which must be filed the following day at or before 8:45 a.m.

Parties filing electronically must use one of the court's approved electronic filing service providers, with procedures available on the court's website.

The remote platform for Department 72 is Uniform Digital Courtroom (UDC), with appearance logistics instructions available on the court's remote-appearances web page.

Each party must email the preliminary examination judges by 5 p.m. at least one court day before the examination with readiness, continuance, remote testimony, interpreter, and time estimate information.

Counsel should let the court know if they wish to visit trial jurors after discharge.

Attorneys must contact Department 3 by email (monitored 8:30 a.m.–4:30 p.m.), must not contact the Judge directly without permission, and should copy other parties to avoid ex parte communication.

CLETS-001 and FM-1041 will not become part of the court file.

An SOC may be continued or vacated only upon a letter showing agreement of all parties, filed with the Court Clerk at least two court days before the scheduled SOC, and is deemed approved unless the FSCO Clerk notifies otherwise.

Electronically filed documents should be in .pdf format converted from the native word processing format, not optical scan; if scanning is necessary, OCR is recommended.

Counsel must provide the courtroom clerk with an Exhibit List in an editable Word version.

Counsel must give the courtroom clerk an editable Word version of the Exhibit List.

Each party must bring two copies of the Post-Mediation Hearing Statement form to the PMH.

Counsel must email a courtesy copy of all e-filed documents to the court, copying all counsel, at department5@scscourt.org.

Counsel must provide 16-17 copies of the final jury instructions to the Court (12 for jury, 2-3 for alternates, a courtesy copy for the judge, and a copy to be filed); each side should also have its own copy.

FCS screening fees are charged unless a fee waiver is granted.

Motions in limine are not heard at the pre-trial conference.

In limine and other pretrial motions are heard on the record before the jury panel is called, absent special circumstances.

Evidentiary attachments to Family Court pleadings are limited to 10 pages (excluding Judicial Council form attachments), with exceptions for contempt orders to show cause and wage assignment applications; additional attachments require an ex parte application.

Entire sets of written discovery documents may never be lodged with or received by the Court; only extracts are permitted.

A minimum of four full sets of pre-numbered exhibits is required.

The Court strongly encourages parties and senior attorneys to allow junior lawyers to participate in all court proceedings, particularly in arguing motions the junior lawyer drafted or significantly contributed to.