Northern District of California Local Rules and Judge Filing Requirements

If witness testimony will be necessary at the claim construction hearing, counsel must file a joint status report alerting the Court and request a case management conference.

The parties must jointly file a proposed Statement of the Case for the jury to hear during voir dire.

Parties must follow federal criminal rules and local rules except where superseded by this standing order.

Trial counsel must meet and confer at least 21 days before the Pretrial Conference.

Trial hours equally divided between plaintiffs and defendants unless stipulated otherwise

Test electronic equipment with courtroom deputy before first trial day.

All counsel must be fully apprised and authorized to respond to court settings.

All case management conferences are conducted via Zoom videoconference unless specially set.

Deliveries must go to Clerk's office, not chambers.

Filing deadlines are 5:00 PM unless court orders otherwise.

A proposed order for bringing exhibit presentation equipment and technology into the building must be filed no later than 14 days before trial.

Each party's statement addressing unresolved evidentiary disputes must be filed by midnight if the parties cannot resolve them in good faith.

Parties must provide the Court Reporter a joint list of names, places, and uncommon terms or acronyms likely to be used at trial no later than 5 days before trial start.

Responses to sentencing motions must be filed at least 5 calendar days before sentencing.

A designating party that fails to file the discovery dispute letter within the applicable 21- or 14-day period automatically waives confidentiality for each challenged designation.

For cross-motions for summary judgment, first brief limited to 50 pages, third to 30 pages, fourth to 20 pages.

Objections to unconscious bias video limited to 1 page double-spaced.

Cross-motions for summary judgment limited to 25 pages and must be filed 14 days after the motion.

Each opposition is limited to five pages, and the moving party may not file a reply brief.

Responsive separate statement should add no more than 5 pages to moving statement.

Proposed notices must use plain language and avoid unnecessary acronyms.

Each exhibit must be pre-marked with a non-white exhibit tag in the top-right corner of the first page.

Exhibits must be published via poster blow-up, courtroom technology transmission, or other allowed method, and highlighting/circling/underscoring enlargements is permitted if clearly not on the original.

The listed pretrial documents must be submitted in two binders to the Clerk’s office.

E-filed documents must be text-searchable PDFs; requirement waived for self-represented litigants.

When the exhibits total more than seven binder volumes, the parties must follow the specified electronic and rolling-delivery requirements.

Courtesy copies must be in packaging marked with case name/number, 'Judge Wise,' and 'Courtesy Copy.'

Counsel must submit two double-sided, three-hole-punched courtesy copies of all filings, marked with the ECF stamp, labeled 'Chambers Copy – Do Not File', and placed in an envelope bearing Judge Thompson's name and the case number.

Paper courtesy copies are not required unless specifically requested by the Court.

Exhibits must be delivered on a labeled flash drive to the Clerk's office seven days before trial; paper courtesy copies are not required unless ordered.

Replies to motions in limine are not permitted.

Except for the stated exceptions, a Rule 56 motion requires prior court leave, requested through a letter to Chambers and opposing parties that proposes a conference date and time.

Civil motions require reservation for Wednesday 9:00 a.m. hearings in San Jose.

Rule 52 cross-motions require filing four briefs sequentially, not three pairs of simultaneous briefs.

Parties must meet and confer in good faith to try to resolve a discovery dispute.

Opposition briefs must be filed 14 days before hearing.

Extension requests must include a proposed order with future deadlines and extensions, a chart of current and proposed deadlines, and if parties disagree, details of prior extension requests.

Continuances are disfavored.

Zoom hearing requests must be made at least one week in advance.

Continuance/extension requests must indicate in the caption the number of previous extensions requested and must state whether the Court granted them and whether it has said no further extensions will be granted.

Sealed attachments uploaded to Box.com must be unredacted, named with redacted then sealed docket numbers, organized logically.

Parties must not submit chambers copies of the redacted versions of documents they seek to seal.

Motions to seal require a specific per-document showing for narrow redactions; overbroad or vague requests risk denial and public docketing of all sought documents.

Initial motion to seal can indicate a combined motion will follow after briefing.

Documents under seal must comply with Civil Local Rule 79-5 (modified for Judge Thompson); non-conforming motions may be summarily terminated.

The parties may provide the proposed trial materials electronically if they agree.

Emergency relief will be denied unless the applicant shows it made every reasonable effort to notify the opposing party, at the earliest possible time, of its intent to seek emergency relief.

By joint agreement, parties may exchange only a complete list identifying the proposed exhibits by Bates label or other identification instead of the documents themselves.

Electronic copies of the attorney’s fees motion chart must be submitted in Word format to the designated court email address (nwpo@cand.uscourts.gov).

Counsel must exchange witness lists and direct examination exhibits at the end of each trial day; opposing counsel must respond with objections and cross-examination exhibits within 24 hours.

Box.com link for pretrial filings must be obtained 28 days before pretrial conference

Pretrial conference is 1-2 weeks before trial; dispositive motions due 2-3 months before pretrial.

Later-filing parties should cite to earlier exhibits and avoid duplicates; joint appendix encouraged.

Initial case management conference can be moved 21 days after dispositive motion hearing.

Exhibits accompanying motions, oppositions, or replies must be filed separately on ECF with sequential docket numbers.

Proposed jury questionnaire questions must be filed on the docket and a Word version emailed 21 days before the pretrial conference.

Parties must file proposed supplemental juror questions on the docket and also submit a Microsoft Word compatible version to rflpo@cand.uscourts.gov.

Exhibits must be filed separately on ECF with each exhibit as its own docket entry (e.g., 31-1, 31-2), in searchable OCR format when possible.

Pro se litigants may, but are not required to, register as ECF users.

Confidential Settlement Statements must not be filed with the Court clerk, either manually or via ECF.

Court may hear oral argument if junior lawyer (≤5 years) will argue.

Junior attorneys (under 7 years experience, fewer than 5 federal motions argued) must notify the Court one week before hearing to have their participation considered for oral argument.

Court encourages junior lawyers to examine witnesses and have important trial roles.

Parties must indicate if less experienced lawyer will argue motion and may request in-person hearing.

Junior lawyers encouraged to present arguments and examine witnesses.