Marin County trial binder and trial document requirements

The Issue Conference shall be held before the trial judge. Trial counsel for each party must attend such conference. The trial judge may also require all parties and claims representatives to attend.

Marin civil has no final status conference and no trial readiness conference. I searched all 9,353 lines of the official combined rule set: trial readiness conference language appears only at rule 3.10 in the Felony and Misdemeanor chapter and rule 7.22 in the Family Law chapter. Local form FL064, Trial Readiness Conference Statement, is listed in the family law block of Appendix A. Chapter 2 never states how many days before trial the issue conference is set, so that date comes from the assigned judge's order. Rule 2.15 was last amended 1/1/25 and was not touched in the 7/1/26 cycle.

Issue Conference Statements. Parties shall include the following in the Issue Conference Statement for consideration at the Issue Conference: 1. A statement of the facts, law, and respective contentions of the parties regarding liability, damages and (if applicable) the nature and extent of injuries; 2. Any unusual evidentiary or legal issues anticipated at trial; 3. All matters of fact believed by any party to be appropriate for stipulation; 4. A list of all witnesses to be called and a brief statement of anticipated testimony; 5. A list of all exhibits to be introduced; 6. A trial length estimate.

Item 1 is the closest thing Marin civil has to a trial brief requirement, and it lives inside the issue conference statement rather than in a separate document. Note the wording: this subdivision says Parties shall include, not each party, though rule 2.15(B)(1) lists the Issue Conference Statement among the documents each party files and serves. There is no local form for this statement and the court publishes no page limit or format beyond the six items.

The Court shall hold a mandatory settlement conference in all cases where a jury trial has been demanded or in the Court's discretion.

Verified against both the standalone civil chapter and the official combined full set. Rule 2.14 was amended effective 7/1/26 and appears on the July 2026 revision table. Nothing in chapter 2 states how far before trial the conference is set. Courtroom D, Judge Andrew Sweet, carries Mandatory Settlement Conferences on the judicial assignments page, and the ADR page states that Civil, Probate and Custody-Visitation settlement conferences are heard in the department assigned to the case. Settlement conference statements are not required in unlawful detainer cases under rule 2.17(A).

At least ten (10) court days before the settlement conference, parties shall lodge a settlement conference statement with the Court. If excused by the Court from E-filing, the excused party shall mail the statements to the settlement panelists. The Court may impose sanctions of $99 per calendar day for statements lodged late. The parties shall note the date and time of the settlement conference and trial on the face sheet of the statement. The settlement conference statement shall comply with all requirements of CRC 3.1380(c) and shall also include the following, where applicable:

The four added items, quoted in full: "1. Pertinent excerpts of medical reports, depositions, photographs, and records with material portions highlighted on all copies submitted; 2. The highest previous offer and lowest previous demand; 3. The date of the last face-to-face settlement discussion; 4. Presentation of any special barriers to settlement." The verb is lodge, not file. The sanction is discretionary, the rule says may impose, and it runs in calendar days. Whether the statement is per party or joint is not stated in the local rule; the rule says parties shall lodge a settlement conference statement and then incorporates CRC 3.1380(c).

The Court requires personal attendance at all settlement conferences by lead trial counsel, a client representative with full settlement authority, and in cases involving third-party payors, a representative with full settlement authority from each third-party. Exceptions to this rule require advance written approval from the Court.

Rule 2.14(D) adds the enforcement: "An attorney's or party's failure to prepare for, appear at, or participate in a settlement conference, absent good cause shown, may result in the imposition of sanctions." In a construction defect case with multiple carriers the third party payor sentence reads as a carrier representative per insurer. The ADR page's remote appearance language covers family law bench bar settlement conferences only, not civil, so it does not soften this rule.

Courtesy Copies. Not later that than five (5) court days before the Issue Conference, the parties shall provide courtesy hard copies of all documents listed in 2.15 B and C directly to the trial department. These copies shall be submitted in an indexed binder and each motion shall be separately bookmarked in a manner consistent with the requirements set forth in CRC 3.1110(f).

"Not later that than" is a typo in the published rule and is quoted here as printed; I confirmed it appears that way in both the standalone civil chapter and the official combined full set. This is the Marin trial binder and it goes to the trial department, not to the clerk's office. The rule says the parties, not each party, so whether this is one binder per party or a single joint binder is not resolved by the text. What the rule also does not say: how many sets, what the tabs are labeled, whether it is hand delivered or mailed, and whether an electronic copy is wanted alongside it. The bookmarking cross reference points at CRC 3.1110(f), which governs electronic exhibits, so the rule describes an electronic convention while ordering a paper binder. Call the trial department before building it.

Any required courtesy copies are deemed submitted upon the e-filing of an original document unless otherwise ordered by the court.

Reading rule 2.15(D) as the otherwise ordered carve-out is the natural construction, specific over general, but it is a construction and not published text. These are the only two courtesy copy provisions in the entire rule set; I searched all eight chapters and the appendices for the word courtesy and found only these plus a table of contents entry and two unrelated uses.

Documents not filed or admitted at a hearing or trial and left at the courthouse will be discarded immediately following the hearing or trial without notice to the parties. This includes binders and boxes containing the documents.

Aimed directly at the rule 2.15(D) courtesy binder and at trial exhibits lodged under rule 1.51(B)(15). Retrieve them at the end of trial or they are gone with no notice. Renumbered from 2.22 to 2.21 effective 7/1/26, confirmed on the revision table. The family law chapter carries an identical twin at rule 7.32; cite the civil one. Exhibits that were actually admitted follow a different track and may be picked up by appointment from the Court Records Office after a Notice of Intent to Destroy Exhibits.

Documents to be Filed for Issue Conference. Not later than ten (10) court days before an Issue Conference, each party shall file and serve the following: 1. Issue Conference Statement; 2. A proposed statement of the case to be read to the jury; 3. Proposed voir dire questions; 4. Proposed jury instructions; 5. Proposed verdict forms; 6. Motions in Limine (if any).

This subdivision is the one place in rule 2.15 that says each party. Under Administrative Order 26-01 each document that takes a file stamp must be e-filed as its own separate PDF in its own transaction, so these are six separate e-filing transactions per party rather than one package. Verified identical in the standalone civil chapter and the official combined full set.

A list of all witnesses to be called and a brief statement of anticipated testimony;

The preclusion sentence at the end of rule 2.15(C), quoted in its own row, is what gives this teeth. In a construction defect case that means every expert, every homeowner and every percipient witness has to appear in the statement with a testimony summary, not just on a bare list.

A list of all exhibits to be introduced;

No rule prescribes a numbering or lettering convention for civil trial exhibits and no rule directs a pretrial exchange of exhibits between parties. Rule 2.19(B), titled Exhibits, sits under Small Claims Cases and does not reach general civil. The physical exhibits are handled separately under rule 1.51(B)(15), which sends them to the trial department in paper.

Proposed jury instructions;

The civil rule does not require a joint set, does not require a separate set of contested instructions, does not require CACI numbers, and does not say the instructions must be fully drafted. The criminal chapter is more demanding on the same point, calling for "proposed fully drafted jury instructions" at rule 3.10(A) and (B), which is a useful contrast when reading the thinner civil text.

Proposed verdict forms;

Carried by the each party lead-in. The rule does not say general or special and does not require the parties to agree on a form before filing.

A proposed statement of the case to be read to the jury;

Carried by the each party lead-in to rule 2.15(B). The rule sets no length limit, no format, and does not direct the parties to meet and confer on a neutral version first.

Motions in Limine (if any). All motions in limine must be in writing and consecutively numbered.

The motion itself rides the 10 court day deadline in the lead-in to rule 2.15(B). No page limit and no cap on the number of motions is published anywhere in the local rules; I read rules 2.7, 2.8 and 2.9, which set the local format and law and motion requirements, and none imposes a page limit. Rule 2.15(D) separately requires each motion to be separately bookmarked in the courtesy binder.

Any opposition, response, or statement of non-opposition to motions in limine must be in writing and filed not later than five (5) court days before the Issue Conference. Each opposition, response, or statement of non-opposition must be numbered to correspond to the applicable motion in limine.

Split out from the motion deadline because two different dates sit inside one subdivision and this is the one that gets missed. The opposition is due the same day the courtesy binder is due under rule 2.15(D), which leaves no time to bind it. The rule says filed, not lodged, and does not mention a reply.

Proposed voir dire questions;

Easy one to miss because most counties do not require written voir dire as part of the pretrial package. No jury questionnaire procedure is published for civil.

Other than as relates to impeachment or rebuttal, or for good cause shown, witnesses and exhibits not identified in the Issue Conference Statement will be excluded at trial.

The sharpest consequence in the Marin civil chapter and it is automatic in its terms: will be excluded, not may be excluded. It is an unnumbered flush paragraph sitting after item 6 of rule 2.15(C), which is a place it is easy to skim past.

Trial Exhibits Not to be Filed Electronically. Proposed trial exhibits must not be filed electronically but instead must be lodged in paper format with the trial department once assigned, unless otherwise instructed by the trial judge.

Rule 1.51(B)(2)(a)(vi) lists "trial exhibits" among the documents that shall not be filed electronically, and the court's eFiling page carries the matching item "Exhibits to be lodged for Hearings or Trials." No deadline is published for lodging them and no format is specified, so this runs entirely on the trial judge's instruction. The court's Exhibits and Court Records pages cover only post-trial retrieval and destruction, not pre-trial lodging. In a construction defect trial with a large photo and expert exhibit set, ask the trial department for the lodging date and format as soon as the case is assigned out.

Format for Exhibits and Documents. Exhibit attachments to pleadings filed electronically shall be separated by a single page with a title identifying the sequence of the exhibit. All exhibits must be electronically bookmarked (referred to in these Marin County Local Rules as "bookmarked") for ease of reference. Any pleadings or documents (except for trial exhibits) that are submitted to the Clerk of the Court in paper format must not be stapled but instead must be held together by binder clips or two-prong fasteners.

This is where the court defines bookmarked, the term rule 2.15(D) uses for the trial binder, and it defines it as electronic bookmarking. Rule 2.8(C)(2) separately requires referenced exhibits to be bookmarked on demurrers, motions to strike, judgment on the pleadings and summary judgment.

During trial and with permission from the Court, a party may submit to the courtroom clerk, and serve by hand any pleadings, as long as the pleadings are also filed and served electronically by the party before the close of business no later than the following court day. The proof of service must reference the date the document was originally served in open court.

This is the mechanism for a mid-trial brief, a supplemental instruction or an in-trial motion. Permission from the court comes first, and the electronic filing has to follow by the next court day.

Documents Must be Electronically Filed Individually and Separately - Each document that requires a file stamp and to be docketed as a separate filing must be electronically filed as its own individual and separate PDF document (e.g., Motion, Memorandum of Points and Authorities, Declaration, Notice, Proof of Service, Request, Response, Opposition, etc.). Bundle-submitted documents with other documents in the same case will no longer be allowed.

Signed by Presiding Judge Stephen P. Freccero, filed and dated February 23, 2026, and applicable in all non-Criminal cases. The order states no phase-in or enforcement date; it is effective as filed. Rejection is discretionary and undated: "The Clerk's Office may reject filings for correction if an electronic filing combines multiple documents that require separate file stamps into a single PDF, or if such documents are submitted together in one transaction when this Order requires them to be filed separately." Paragraph 2 requires a unique transaction receipt per document. Paragraph 4 exempts case initiation documents, which must still be filed as a bundle. The order closes by stating it "does not alter page limits, exhibit rules, bookmarking requirements (if any), sealing procedures, or any other filing requirements." The PDF is a two page scan with no text layer; I rendered both pages at 190 dpi and read them.

If the Court finds that any counsel, a party represented by counsel, or a self-represented party has failed to comply with these local rules, the Court on motion of a party or on its own motion may strike out all or any part of any pleading of that party, or, dismiss the action or proceeding or any part of it, or enter a judgment by default against a party, or impose other penalties of a lesser nature as otherwise provided by Law. The Court also may order a party or a party's counsel to pay the moving party's reasonable expenses in making the motion for sanctions, including reasonable attorney fees.

The general local rule sanction provision, and it reaches the rule 2.15 trial document deadlines. Watch the numbering: the rule history line reads renumbered as Rule 2.20 effective 1/1/22, renumbered as Rule 2.21 7/1/25, renumbered as Rule 2.20 7/1/26. So a 2025 citation to Marin rule 2.21 for sanctions now points at the discarded documents rule. The July 2026 revision table confirms the 2.21 to 2.20 renumbering.