Calaveras County trial binder and trial document requirements

In all general civil matters, at the time the court sets the case for trial, a settlement conference shall also be set at least 15 days prior to the trial date.

Verified verbatim against the July 1, 2026 rules PDF. This is the only pretrial conference the civil rules attach to a trial date. There is no civil trial readiness conference, final status conference or issue conference anywhere in Chapter 3, which runs 3.1 through 3.9. The 15 days is a floor and not the actual interval, because the court picks the date when it sets trial, so calendar the real date off the setting order. Calendar days, since the rule says days without the court days qualifier it uses elsewhere.

It is mandatory that all counsel shall, at least five court days prior to the scheduled Settlement Conference, submit to the court and serve on all parties a Settlement Conference Statement not to exceed five pages. The statement must conform with California Rules of Court, Rule 3.1380.

Verified verbatim. Anchored to the settlement conference date, not the trial date, and the two can be far apart because 3.6.1 sets only a floor. Court days, not calendar days. The rule says submit to the court, not file. Do not use the court's Local Form A-7 Settlement Conference Statement in a general civil case. I pulled and read all six pages of that form: it cites this rule and CRC 3.1380 in its footer, but every field is family law (date of marriage, date of separation, custody, FL-150, FL-142, FL-160) and it is captioned Petitioner and Respondent. It is optional use in any event. Write a CRC 3.1380 statement and keep it to five pages.

In all cases, prior to the Settlement Conference, the parties shall have communicated their settlement requests and offers to each other.

Verified verbatim. No interval is stated. The rule requires only that the exchange happen before the conference, so pair it with the five court day statement deadline and send the demand no later than that.

Each plaintiff or party seeking affirmative relief or recovery shall be prepared to make his or her minimum request and each defendant must come to the conference prepared to make his or her highest offer. In each case, counsel who attends the conference shall be thoroughly familiar with the case and shall be prepared to discuss it. Pursuant to California Rules of Court, Rule 3.1380, the attorney responsible for the preparation and trial of the case must attend the settlement conference.

Verified verbatim. Sending appearance counsel does not satisfy this rule. Read it with rule 2.9, which holds an attorney appearing for another attorney to the same duties as counsel of record and requires authority to make dispositions.

Present at the settlement conference must be persons having full authority to settle the case. Only on good cause application made prior to the time of the settlement conference, may the Court allow such persons to be available telephonically.

Verified verbatim. The full subdivision opens with a sentence on the importance of having everyone whose consent a binding settlement requires, which is not quoted here. For a carrier or an association board, the application to appear by phone has to be made and ruled on in advance. The rule is written as an exception, not a default.

The following hearings are unsuitable for remote appearances and personal appearances are required unless prior permission is obtained through application and order of the court: ... (7) Mandatory Settlement Conferences;

Verified verbatim, both the lead-in and item (7). Citation corrected from the draft's malformed "3.8(c), subd. (c)(7)." The rule is captioned 3.8 Remote Appearances in the body and 3.8 Telephone Appearances in the table of contents. The rules index carries both captions and mis-numbers one of them, listing "Remote Appearance" under 3.5, which is actually Judicial Arbitration. Same rule throughout. Subdivision (c)(8) separately bars remote appearance at any hearing where oral testimony is taken, which reaches trial itself, and (c)(9) bars it where argument is expected to run past 15 minutes.

If, at the time of the scheduled Settlement Conference, plaintiff or those parties seeking affirmative relief fail to appear, the Court may order the trial date vacated, dismiss the action or impose monetary sanctions.

Verified verbatim. The same subdivision lets the court impose costs, actual expenses and counsel fees against a non-appearing defendant and send the case to trial on the assigned date. Under 3.6.5(b), if nobody appears and no notice was given, the case goes on the law and motion calendar to be dismissed.

Not less than 15 calendar days before each Case Management Conference, each party shall file with the court and serve on all other parties a Case Management Conference Statement (Judicial Council form CM-110).

Verified verbatim. Anchor note, read this before calendaring: the true anchor is the case management conference date, which the anchor vocabulary has no token for, so court_order stands in because the CMC date comes from the court. It is 15 calendar days, expressly, not court days. Case management rather than trial preparation, listed because it is the only vehicle in the civil rules through which a trial date and the rule 3.6.1 settlement conference get set. The first conference is set approximately 120 days after the initial pleading is filed (rule 3.4.3) and the filing party serves notice of it with the complaint. Under 3.4.5(b) attendance is required only when there is no tentative ruling or a party objects to it.

Any party may demand a jury and be responsible for the jury deposit consistent with the procedures for jury trial set forth in the Code of Civil Procedure §631(b). Failure of the parties to deposit advance jury fees pursuant to CCP §631 shall result in a waiver of trial by jury.

Verified verbatim. Anchor corrected from the draft, which anchored this to the trial date. The local rule creates no trial-relative deadline at all and sets no date of its own. It defers entirely to CCP 631, and the statutory deadline is not measured backward from trial, so counting back from the trial date will miss it and the consequence the rule names is jury waiver. CCP 631 was not read in this pass, so no statutory interval is asserted here. Read the section before calendaring. The section symbols render as replacement characters in the PDF text layer and are transcribed here as section marks.

If the relief sought is the waiver of jury fees, the application shall be made at least 25 days prior to the commencement of the trial for which the relief from fees imposed is sought, or at least five days in unlawful detainer proceedings.

Verified verbatim. This sits in the Additional Fees Waiver paragraph of 2.3(a) and applies to additional fee waivers under CRC 3.56. The same paragraph requires Judicial Council form FW-002 and says the application must be submitted to the appropriate judge. Rarely in play for a represented plaintiff, but it is one of only two hard trial-anchored deadlines this court publishes for general civil cases, the other being the 15 day settlement conference floor.

Pursuant to California Rule of Court 2.956(c) since the services of an official court reporter are not available for a hearing or trial in cases other than those referenced above in Local Rule 2.7(a), a party desiring a court reporter in any other matter must make arrangements for the presence of a court reporter and that party is responsible to pay all costs associated with the court reporter.

Verified verbatim and NARROWED from the draft, which stated this flatly. Calaveras General Order 26-03, "Meaningful Access to Official Verbatim Record of Proceedings," is published at https://calaveras.courts.ca.gov/system/files/local-rules/26-03-2026-order-meaningful-access-official-verbatim-record-proceedings.pdf. It is a scanned image with no text layer and could not be read here, and it may modify reporter availability or the use of electronic recording. Call the court before assuming no reporter will be provided. Rule 2.7(a) limits official reporters to felony and juvenile proceedings. Rule 2.7(c) makes the court's electronic recording system the official record in limited civil proceedings on court order. Rule 2.7(d) sets a $30 fee for a reported proceeding of less than one hour, payable on or before the hearing, with proof of payment to the reporter before the proceeding starts. Fee waiver litigants are excepted from the cost.

In all proceedings, including small claims, counsel or self-represented litigants requiring the assistance of a court interpreter for a non-English speaking party or witness at hearing or trial must make all necessary arrangements prior to the trial or hearing for the presence of an appropriate interpreter. The requesting party is required to file Judicial Council form Request for Interpreter (Civil) (INT-300).

Verified verbatim. No fixed interval. The same subdivision adds that a request should be submitted once the requirement presents itself. Rule 2.6(c) requires immediate notice to the court when the interpreter is no longer needed and warns that late cancellation can produce an order to reimburse the court for the cancellation fee.

It is the responsibility of the parties to obtain, set up and operate all audio/visual and other equipment necessary to view or present any demonstrative evidence. Any such equipment proposed to be used in court shall be approved by the court in advance of set up and use.

Verified verbatim, and this is the full text of rule 2.11. No timing is stated beyond advance approval, and the rule names no procedure for requesting it. In a construction defect trial with expert boards, screens and video, raise this at the settlement conference or by written request well before trial, because there is no published mechanism and no default the court supplies.

The Executive Officer/Clerk of the Calaveras County Court will not accept or retain exhibits that are bulky, heavy or designated as hazardous waste material. ... Exhibits which fall into one of the above classifications are not to be sent to the courts' exhibits custodian. Photographs, technical reports, or identical dummy objects shall be used in lieu of the original object.

Anchor corrected from the draft, which used at_event as the anchor rather than the offset. Verified verbatim, with one transcription note: the printed 2.12(a) carries footnote markers after bulky, heavy and hazardous waste material, and the footnotes define bulky as exceeding 1 cubic foot in volume and heavy as exceeding 3 lbs. by weight. Those thresholds matter in a defect case, since a stucco or window assembly cut out of a wall exceeds both. Plan on photographs and a technical report for any physical sample. Rule 2.12(e) closes with "This rule shall not apply to capital cases," so the exception is capital cases only.

Prior to marking and admitting exhibits into evidence, the submitting party is required to disclose the number of pages of each exhibit to the court clerk and opposing party or counsel to ensure no pages are missing.

Anchor corrected from the draft. Verified verbatim. This is the closest thing the local rules have to an exhibit index requirement, and it is a page count given at the time of marking, not a document filed in advance. Build the page count into the exhibit list you bring to court. Tagged Other rather than Exhibit lists on purpose, because the rule governs exhibit handling and creates no pretrial exhibit list obligation.

Notwithstanding any other provision of law or this rule, the following items may not be electronically filed: ... (7) Documents typically submitted during the course of a proceeding (e.g., Trial Exhibits);

Anchor corrected from the draft. Verified verbatim, both the lead-in and item (7). The same subdivision also bars e-filing of subpoenaed documents (c)(3), documents with attachments that cannot be accurately transmitted because of size or type (c)(6), documents lodged provisionally under seal (c)(8), and documents for cases under seal (c)(9). Trial exhibits go to the courtroom in paper.

Unlawful Detainer trials will be conducted on Tuesdays, at 1:30 p.m. in Department 4 by a commissioner unless a written objection to having the matter heard by a commissioner is filed at least five (5) court days prior to the scheduled trial. In the event such an objection is timely filed, the commissioner will still conduct the trial as a referee.

Added on this pass. The draft omitted it. Verified verbatim in Chapter 3 Civil Rules, so it is civil, not criminal or family. Unlawful detainer only, and irrelevant to a general civil trial, but it belongs in the set because it is one of only three hard trial-anchored deadlines the civil rules publish, and it is the only one measured in court days. Note the sting in the second sentence: a timely objection does not get you a judge, it gets you the same commissioner sitting as a referee.