Judge Lisa J. Cisneros

Such exhibits shall not exceed twenty-five pages without leave of the Court.

In the rare instance that a joint letter is not possible, each side may submit a letter not to exceed two pages, which shall include an explanation of why a joint letter was not possible.

Absent prior leave of Court, the parties are limited to filing one summary judgment motion per side, not to exceed 25 pages in length.

Joint letters shall be in text-searchable PDF format and shall not exceed five pages (12-point font or greater; single-spaced, margins no less than one inch) without leave of the Court.

The confidential settlement letter, not to exceed five pages of text, must include the following:

The settlement conference statement shall not exceed ten pages of text. Parties are encouraged to include as exhibits any key documents and deposition excerpts. The exhibits to the settlement conference statement shall not exceed twenty pages.

Absent prior leave of Court, the parties are limited to filing one summary judgment motion per side, not to exceed 25 pages in length.

Joint letters shall be in text-searchable PDF format and shall not exceed five pages (12-point font or greater; margins no less than one inch) without leave of the Court.

The parties shall submit one exhibit that sets forth each disputed discovery request in full, followed immediately by the objections and/or responses thereto. No other information shall be included in the exhibit. An additional set of exhibits is allowed for declarations or other documents relevant to the discovery dispute. Such exhibits shall not exceed twenty-five pages without leave of the Court.

(f) Motions in Limine. Any motions in limine that could not be settled at the pretrial meeting shall be filed with the pretrial statement. All motions in limine shall be contained within one jointly filed document, limited to twenty-four pages, with each motion listed as a subheading. Opposition to the motions in limine shall be contained within one document, limited to twenty-four pages, with corresponding subheadings, and filed seven days thereafter.

Electronically filed documents must be text-searchable PDFs and compatible with text-to-speech readers, such as Adobe Acrobat, whenever possible.

Joint letters must be filed in ECF under the Civil Events category of Motions and Related Filings > Motions: General > Discovery Letter Brief. Joint letters shall be in text-searchable PDF format and shall not exceed five pages (12-point font or greater; margins no less than one inch) without leave of the Court.

Electronically filed documents must be text-searchable PDFs and compatible with text-to-speech readers, such as Adobe Acrobat, whenever possible.

Private conferences between deponents and attorneys in the course of interrogation, including a line of related questions, are improper and prohibited except for the sole purpose of determining whether a privilege should be asserted.

When a privilege is claimed, the witness should nevertheless answer questions relevant to the existence, extent, or waiver of the privilege, such as the date of a communication, who made the statement, to whom and in whose presence the statement was made, other persons to whom the contents of the statement have been disclosed, and the general subject matter of the statement, unless such information is itself privileged.

Deposition objections must be as to privilege or form only. Speaking objections are prohibited.

An insured party must appear with a representative of the carrier who has full authority to negotiate up to the limits of coverage.

A person who needs to call another person, not present, before agreeing to any settlement does not have full authority.

A party other than a natural person (e.g., a corporation or association) satisfies the attendance requirement if represented by a person (other than outside counsel) who is knowledgeable about the case and has final authority to settle up to the full amount of the opposing party's existing settlement demand or offer.

A party that is a government entity satisfies the attendance requirement if represented by a person (in addition to counsel of record) who (a) has, to the greatest extent feasible, authority to settle, (b) is knowledgeable about the facts of the case, the government entity's position, and the positions and policies under which the government entity decides whether to accept proposed settlements, and (c) has the authority, if a tentative settlement agreement is reached, to recommend the agreement to the government entity for approval.

If authority to settle is vested in a governing board, claims committee, or equivalent body and cannot be delegated, a party must designate a person with authority to participate in the settlement conference and, if a tentative settlement agreement is reached, to recommend the agreement to the appropriate body for approval.

Lead trial counsel must attend the settlement conference with the parties and persons having full authority to negotiate and settle the case.

If the action is brought by the government on behalf of one or more individuals, at least one such individual also must attend.

Without these email addresses, a Zoom Invitation to join the settlement conference cannot be sent.

Statements made during the conference are confidential and will not be admissible at trial if the case does not settle.

Such requests must be made at a pre-settlement conference meeting with the Court, or well in advance of the settlement conference.

If a request is not made at a pre-settlement conference meeting, the request shall be submitted at least 30 days in advance of the settlement conference by filing either a Motion for Administrative Relief (if the request is opposed) or Stipulation (if the request is unopposed), pursuant to Civil Local Rules 7-11 and 7-12, respectively.

For settlement conferences in which all parties or some individuals have been allowed by the Court to participate via Zoom, counsel must provide to the CRD the names and email addresses for those settlement conference participants.

This contact information shall be emailed to ljccrd@cand.uscourts.gov no later than 7 days before the settlement conference.

No later than 7 days prior to the settlement conference, each counsel shall email a pdf of their confidential settlement letter to ljcsettlement@cand.uscourts.gov. The confidential settlement letter shall not be served upon the other parties.

No later than 7 days prior to the settlement conference, counsel for each party shall email a pdf of their settlement conference statement to ljcsettlement@cand.uscourts.gov. Counsel shall serve a copy of the settlement conference statement on all parties.

Proposed orders in civil cases shall be submitted in Word format (.doc or .docx) via email to ljcpo@cand.uscourts.gov on the day of filing.

The Court may strike filings that do not comply.

All motions or non-stipulated requests shall include a certification, which may be submitted separately or included in the body of the filing, that the parties have complied with this meet and confer requirement.

If parties believe a protective order is necessary, they are encouraged to use one of the Court’s model protective orders (available at http://cand.uscourts.gov/model-protective-orders). Parties shall file one of the following with their proposed protective order: (1) a declaration stating that the proposed order is identical to one of the model orders except for the addition of case-identifying information or the elimination of language denoted as optional; (2) a declaration explaining each modification to the model order, along with a redline version comparing the proposed protective order with the model order; or (3) a declaration explaining why use of one of the model orders is not practicable.

The privilege log will be produced as quickly as possible, but no later than fourteen (14) days after its disclosures or discovery responses are due, unless the parties stipulate to, or the Court sets, another date.

Deposition objections must be as to privilege or form only. Speaking objections are prohibited.

If a party withholds responsive information by claiming that it is privileged or otherwise protected from discovery, that party shall produce a privilege log. See Fed. R. Civ. P. 26(b)(5).

When a privilege is claimed, the witness should nevertheless answer questions relevant to the existence, extent, or waiver of the privilege, such as the date of a communication, who made the statement, to whom and in whose presence the statement was made, other persons to whom the contents of the statement have been disclosed, and the general subject matter of the statement, unless such information is itself privileged.

Private conferences between deponents and attorneys in the course of interrogation, including a line of related questions, are improper and prohibited except for the sole purpose of determining whether a privilege should be asserted.

Not less than twenty-eight days prior to the pretrial conference, counsel shall exchange (but not file or lodge) the papers described in Civil Local Rule 16-10(b)(7), (8), (9), and (10), and their motions in limine.

(b) Exhibit List and Objections. The exhibit list shall list each proposed exhibit by its number (see Civil L.R. 30-2(b)), description, and sponsoring witness, followed by blanks to accommodate the date on which it is marked for identification and the date on which it is admitted into evidence. No party shall be permitted to offer any exhibit in its case-in-chief that is not disclosed in its exhibit list without leave of the Court for good cause shown. Parties shall also deliver a set of premarked exhibits to the Courtroom Deputy at the Clerk’s Office. Do not deliver these exhibits directly to chambers. The exhibit markers shall each contain the name and number of the case, the number of the exhibit, and blanks to accommodate the date admitted and the Deputy Clerk's initials. Any objections to exhibits which remain after the pretrial meeting shall be indicated in the pretrial statement.

Not less than fourteen days prior to the pretrial conference, counsel shall file the following: (a) Pretrial Conference Statement. The parties shall file a joint pretrial conference statement containing the following information: (1) The Action. (A) Substance of the Action. A brief description of the substance of claims and defenses which remain to be decided. (B) Relief Prayed. A detailed statement of all the relief claimed, particularly itemizing all elements of damages claimed. (2) The Factual Basis of the Action.

(j) Proposed Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law (bench trials only). Each party shall file proposed findings of fact and conclusions of law, presenting in numbered paragraphs all findings of fact followed by all conclusions of law. The parties shall email to ljcpo@cand.uscourts.gov a copy of their proposed findings of fact and conclusions of law in Word format. The subject of the email should include the name of the case, the case number and a description of the document. The Court requests that the parties hyperlink each proposed Finding of Fact to any supporting evidence, and arrange for either electronic file transfer or delivery of a USB drive containing the hyperlinked exhibits.

(g) Joint Proposed Voir Dire (jury trials only). The attached voir dire questionnaire will be given to the venire members, and copies of the responses will be made available to counsel at the beginning of voir dire. Counsel may submit a set of additional requested voir dire, to be included in the questionnaire or posed by the Court, to which they have agreed at the pretrial meeting. Any voir dire questions on which counsel cannot agree shall be submitted separately. Counsel may be allowed brief follow-up voir dire after the Court's questioning.

(e) Trial briefs. Briefs on all significant disputed issues of law, including foreseeable procedural and evidentiary issues, which remain after the pretrial meeting.

instructions 1.2 through 1.21, 2.1 through 2.13, and 3.1 through 3.3 from the Manual of Model Civil Jury Instructions for the Ninth Circuit (most recent edition) will be given absent objection. Counsel shall jointly submit one set of additional proposed jury instructions, to which they have agreed at the pretrial meeting. The instructions shall be ordered in a logical sequence, together with a table of contents. Any instruction that is based on a form or model instruction (including but not limited to Ninth Circuit model jury instructions and Judicial Council of California Civil Jury Instructions (CACI)) must indicate the number of the form instruction and any alterations made by the parties. Any instruction on which counsel cannot agree shall be marked as “disputed,” and shall be included within the jointly submitted instructions and accompanying table of contents, in the place where the party proposing the instruction believes it should be given. Argument and authority for and against each disputed instruction shall be included as part of the joint submission, on separate pages directly following the disputed instruction. The parties shall email to ljcpo@cand.uscourts.gov a copy of their proposed jury instructions in Word format. The subject of the email should include the case name, the case number and a description of the document.

(c) Witness List. In addition to the requirements of Fed. R. Civ. P. 26(a)(3)(A), parties must also submit a brief joint statement describing the substance of the testimony to be given by each witness who may be called at trial, as well as an estimated duration for direct examination off each witness. No party shall be permitted to call any witness in its case-in-chief who is not disclosed in its pretrial statement without leave of Court for good cause shown.

(d) Use of Discovery Responses. In addition to the requirements of Fed. R. Civ. P. 26(a)(3)(A), parties must identify any designations of excerpts from interrogatory answers or from responses for admissions intended to be offered at trial. Within seven days from when the disclosures are filed with the Court, counsel shall indicate any objections to use of these materials and that counsel have conferred respecting such objections.

(i) Proposed Verdict Forms, Joint or Separate (jury trials only).