Merced County trial document templates

Not legal advice. Rules checked against the code on August 20, 2026. Verify every date yourself. Read the full disclaimer

Core CCP rules were checked against Westlaw (via CoCounsel legal research) on August 20, 2026. County local rules are paraphrased summaries. Individual department and judge standing orders are included only where the court publishes them and we have read the document, so assume your own department has requirements beyond what you see here. Verify every date against the operative code sections, your court’s rules and your department’s own order before relying on it. Using this site creates no attorney-client relationship.

8 documents, 13 required sections, taken from Superior Court of California, County of Merced’s own published rules and read 2026-09-14. Each one downloads as California pleading paper with this court’s required sections already placed, so the document cannot silently omit one.

A blank template is easy to find anywhere. What is hard to find is which sections this court requires inside the document, because that lives in a local rule nobody indexes. Every heading below is cited to the subdivision it came from, and the rule’s own sentence prints beside it in the reference sheet so you can check your work.

Download these as templates

The reference sheet below carries everything this court requires, each rule quoted from its own text and cited to the subdivision. The pleading paper templates are temporarily down while the line numbering is rebuilt, because the rail did not line up with the body text and a pleading whose lines cannot be cited is worse than no template at all.

Your details optional, blanks print as ruled lines

These stay in this browser. They are not sent anywhere, and the file is built on this machine, so a case name never reaches our server.

CourthouseDepartmentJudgeCase nameCase numberClientClient is theOpposing partyTrial dateConference dateFirmAttorneyState Bar numberEmailPhone

Case Management Statement (Judicial Council form CM-110)each party, 1 required sections. no later than 15 calendar days before the date set for the case management conference
Pleading paper is being corrected
Statement Regarding Request for an Official Court Reportereach party, 1 required sections. before the case management conference date
Pleading paper is being corrected
Mandatory Settlement Conference Statement (Local Form MSC-CV-051)each party, 2 required sections. at least five court days before the scheduled conference under rule 3.6, subdivision D, but the mandatory use form directs submission no later than six court days before the hearing, so calendar six
Pleading paper is being corrected
Written Statement of Matters Agreed Upon for the Pre-Trial Conferencejointly or each party separately, at the parties' election, 1 required sections. before the date assigned for the pre-trial conference
Pleading paper is being corrected
Motions in Limineeach party, 3 required sections. no later than 4:00 p.m. six court days before the trial call date
Pleading paper is being corrected
Written Opposition to Motions in Limineeach party, 2 required sections. no later than 4:00 p.m. three court days before the initial trial call date
Pleading paper is being corrected
Electronic Exhibits Presented in Courteach party, 1 required sections. at the hearing or trial at which the exhibit is offered
Pleading paper is being corrected
Instructions Requested by (name of party)each party, 2 required sections. at the commencement of trial, served on all other participating parties and delivered to the trial judge
Pleading paper is being corrected

Everything this court requires in one editable document, with each rule quoted and cited.

What each document has to carry

Case Management Statement (Judicial Council form CM-110)

Prepared by each party. Filed and served, no later than 15 calendar days before the date set for the case management conference. Applies to all civil cases. Merced County Super. Ct., Local Rules, rule 3.5, Case Management, General, subd. 2; the same deadline is repeated under rule 3.5, Case Management Conference Statements

Mandatory Judicial Council Case Management Statement, form CM-110
- The mandatory Case Management Statement form CM-110, completed for this case
- The subjects listed in California Rules of Court, rules 3.724 and 3.727, taken up at a meet and confer held in person or by telephone no later than 30 calendar days before the conference

Statement Regarding Request for an Official Court Reporter

Prepared by each party. Filed, before the case management conference date. Applies to all civil cases. Merced County Super. Ct., Local Rules, rule 1, Court Organization, Court Reporters, subd. 3 (Court Reporting Services Requested by Parties for Civil Trial)

Whether the party requests the presence of an official court reporter
- A statement indicating whether the party requests the presence of an official court reporter

Mandatory Settlement Conference Statement (Local Form MSC-CV-051)

Prepared by each party. Filed and served, at least five court days before the scheduled conference under rule 3.6, subdivision D, but the mandatory use form directs submission no later than six court days before the hearing, so calendar six. Applies to all civil trial matters, because a settlement conference is required in every one. Merced County Super. Ct., Local Rules, rule 3.6, subd. D (Mandatory Settlement Conference Statements)

The statement goes on Local Form MSC-CV-051
- Local Form MSC-CV-051, Settlement Conference Statement (Confidential), which is marked For Mandatory Use on every page
- Submission no later than six court days before the mandatory settlement conference hearing, as the form itself directs
Contents of the settlement conference statement
- The names of all parties and their representatives
- A detailed discussion of the facts and the law on liability
- A detailed discussion of the facts and the law on damages
- A good faith settlement demand

Written Statement of Matters Agreed Upon for the Pre-Trial Conference

Prepared by jointly or each party separately, at the parties' election. Not stated, before the date assigned for the pre-trial conference. Applies to only civil cases in which the court has actually ordered a pre-trial conference. Merced County Super. Ct., Local Rules, rule 3.5, Case Management, Civil Pre-Trial Conferences, subd. 2(a) (Pre-Trial Conference Procedure)

Matters agreed upon after the required conference of the parties
- A conference of the parties held before the date assigned for the pre-trial conference, to reach agreement upon as many matters as possible
- A written statement of the matters agreed upon, prepared jointly or prepared by each party separately
- Submission of that statement before the conference

Motions in Limine

Prepared by each party. Filed and served, no later than 4:00 p.m. six court days before the trial call date. Applies to civil jury trials. Merced County Super. Ct., Local Rules, rule 4, Civil Jury Trials, subd. E(2)

Motions deemed granted, which must not be submitted in writing
- No written motion excluding evidence of collateral source
- No written motion excluding evidence of, or mention of, insurance coverage
- No written motion excluding offers to settle or settlement discussions
Form of each in limine motion
- A title identifying the moving party
- A description of the nature of the motion
- A sequential number indicating the total number of in limine motions that party is submitting
Filing and service deadline
- Filed no later than 4:00 p.m. six court days before the trial call date
- Served on opposing counsel no later than 4:00 p.m. six court days before the trial call date

Written Opposition to Motions in Limine

Prepared by each party. Filed and served, no later than 4:00 p.m. three court days before the initial trial call date. Applies to civil jury trials in which in limine motions were filed. Merced County Super. Ct., Local Rules, rule 4, Civil Jury Trials, subd. E(2)

Written opposition, if any
- Written opposition to the in limine motions, if the party opposes in writing
- Filed and served on opposing counsel no later than 4:00 p.m. three court days before the initial trial call date
Form of each written opposition
- Identification of the opposing party
- Identification of the moving party
- The motion number of the in limine motion being opposed

Electronic Exhibits Presented in Court

Prepared by each party. Not stated, at the hearing or trial at which the exhibit is offered. Applies to any hearing or trial at which a party offers electronic exhibits. Merced County Super. Ct., Local Rules, rule 2.5, Uniform Instructions for Presentation of Electronic Exhibits, Electronic Exhibits Presented in Court, para. 3 (the rule prints no subdivision letters, but its own text says "See sub-section B for a list of compatible formats," which makes this part sub-section A)

Content and format of electronic exhibits
- Only the content to be seen and heard by the judge and jury, and nothing else
- Static digital images, such as photographs and Power Point style presentations, in electronic format
- The same static digital images in printed format
- Other types of media in a format compatible with those authorized by the court

Instructions Requested by (name of party)

Prepared by each party. Served on all other participating parties and delivered to the trial judge, at the commencement of trial, served on all other participating parties and delivered to the trial judge. Applies to all civil jury trials. Merced County Super. Ct., Local Rules, rule 4.1, Civil Jury Instructions, subd. B (Service of Jury Instructions)

Use of pre-approved instructions
- Instructions promulgated or sponsored by the California Judicial Council, used to the extent possible
Form of the written request
- A caption in the action
- The title "Instructions Requested by (name of party)"
- An edited copy of every instruction requested
- One instruction per page

Start with the joint documents

One of these is prepared jointly: Written Statement of Matters Agreed Upon for the Pre-Trial Conference. A joint document needs a meet and confer before it can be filed, so it sets the real deadline even though the filing date is the same as everything else.

When each one is due

Most of these do not run off the trial date. They run off the mandatory settlement conference (there is no final status conference or trial readiness conference in the civil rules). a discretionary "civil pre-trial conference" also exists but is set only on a party's declaration., which the court sets, and counting back from trial instead is the commonest way one gets missed. The full rule list for Merced County carries every rule with its quoted text, and the trial countdown calculator computes the statewide CCP chain.

How these were built

Every rule was researched from the court’s own published text, then checked a second time by a reader told to assume a rule had been invented. Grouping those rules into the documents a court actually wants was a further pass, and an adversarial check corrected it: the commonest error was a document whose contents the first pass left empty while the rule enumerated them. Templates are generated in your browser, so nothing you type is sent anywhere. See methodology.