Santa Clara County trial binder and trial document requirements

Counsel and/or parties must appear in-person (or remotely if prior request is made and approved through Microsoft Teams at the Pretrial Conference using the links for Department 3 on the court's website (www.scscourt.org)).

The draft missed this section completely. The order also says: "At the Pretrial Conference, the court will address scheduling and other administrative matters related to the trial," and "A court reporter is not required for this conference, as no substantive matters will be addressed," and "Counsel should inform the Court if counsel believes an in limine issue will require an evidentiary hearing or if any unusual legal issue or evidentiary issue is anticipated during trial." Eight later passages in the same order assign work to this conference: jury questionnaires, whether voir dire is reported, agreement on the statement of the case, the number of alternates, and time estimates for opening and closing. The date is set by the court. Ask the courtroom clerk at Department3@scscourt.org.

The court has scheduled a pretrial conference for Monday at 9:00 a.m. Counsel or self-represented parties must appear in person, unless a prior request for a remote appearance has been made and approved.

This is the only civil trial department conference Santa Clara actually dates. Same order: "At the pretrial conference, the court will address scheduling and other administrative matters related to the trial," and "Counsel should also be prepared to discuss any motions in limine. As a general rule, the court will review all of the motions in limine before the pretrial conference, unless unusual circumstances intervene." Note the interaction: the in limine motions are due to the department by noon the court day before trial starts, and the judge expects to have read them before the Monday conference.

If the time estimated for trial is more than one day, a Mandatory Settlement Conference will be scheduled to take place before the trial assignment hearing. Unless otherwise ordered, Mandatory Settlement Conferences are conducted remotely by a judge or settlement attorney. The court will send written notice of the time, date, and department.

No fixed number of days is published by rule. Two non-rule sources give a feel for it and neither is authority. The court's public Trial and MSC page says that if trial is on a Monday the MSC is generally the Wednesday before, and that short trials under a half day have no MSC, which does not line up cleanly with the rule's own "more than one day" threshold. Complex Civil Guidelines X.1 says the final MSC in a complex case "takes place a week to two weeks before the first day of trial, typically on a Wednesday." Important for a product tab: the MSC does not anchor the trial documents. Rule 9(C) runs off the trial date and the MSC matters only because Rule 9(C) excuses the filing if the case settled there.

No later than five court days before the date set for the Mandatory Settlement Conference, each party must file with the court and serve on each party a Mandatory Settlement Conference Statement not to exceed five pages, excluding exhibits. The Statement must comply with CRC 3.1380.

This five-page cap is the only page limit anywhere in the Santa Clara civil local rules. I searched every occurrence of page and pages in the civil rules PDF to confirm it. There is no page limit on the trial brief, the motions in limine, or the statement of the case. In a complex case, Complex Civil Guidelines X.2 restates the same five court day deadline.

Lead counsel, parties and persons with full authority to settle the case must personally attend unless excused by the Court. Failure to comply with this requirement may result in sanctions.

Rule 9(B)(3)(b) excuses named defendants where "insurance coverage is available to satisfy plaintiff's settlement demand and a representative of defendant's insurer with full settlement authority attends the Mandatory Settlement Conference with defendant's lead counsel," unless the defendant's personal consent is necessary to settle.

Named defendants must also personally attend the Mandatory Settlement Conference when (1) there is an insurance coverage dispute; (2) plaintiff seeks to recover damages not covered by insurance; or (3) plaintiff's demand exceeds insurance policy limits. Failure to comply with this requirement may result in sanctions.

Directly relevant on a construction defect docket, where the demand routinely exceeds a subcontractor's limits. Complex Civil Guidelines X.2 carries the same three triggers and is harder about the consequence: "Failure to appear will result in the imposition of sanctions."

Unless the parties stipulate in a writing signed by the parties or state orally on the record before a sitting judge, Code of Civil Procedure 664.6 does not apply to a Mandatory Settlement Conference.

The section symbol appears in the printed rule between "Procedure" and "664.6" and is dropped here only because the PDF text layer does not encode it cleanly. Because the MSC is remote by default and often run by a settlement attorney rather than a sitting judge, the signed writing is the practical route. Have the settlement paperwork drafted before the conference.

Any pleadings or documents (except for trial exhibits) that are submitted to the Clerk in paper format must not be stapled, but instead must be held together by binder clips or two-prong fasteners.

This is the closest thing the county publishes to a binder rule for represented parties, and it is a fastening rule, not a trial binder rule. The same subdivision requires exhibit attachments to e-filed pleadings to be separated by a single page titled to identify the sequence of the exhibit. General Rule 6(F) repeats the slip sheet requirement.

Documents that exceed 10 pages and are submitted in paper form must be held together by binder clips. Exhibit attachments to pleadings must be separated by a standard size sheet of paper with a title identifying the sequence of the exhibit. Do not include tabs with any documents submitted for filing.

Scope caveat, and it is real. This sentence sits inside Civil Rule 6(B), headed SELF-REPRESENTED LITIGANTS. Civil Rule 6(A), headed REPRESENTED PARTIES, says only "Refer to Rule 6 of the General Court and Administrative Rules." The parallel General Rule 6(D)(1) for represented parties carries the slip sheet language WITHOUT the tabs prohibition. So the no-tabs sentence is textually addressed to self-represented filers. Treat it as the court's stated preference and follow it, but the county publishes no tab requirement either way for a represented party's trial set.

Unless the case settled at the Mandatory Settlement Conference or dismissed in full prior thereto, or unless otherwise ordered by the Court, the following items must be filed, with courtesy paper copies delivered to the department of the trial judge or with Court Services if no trial judge has yet been assigned, and served on all other parties by noon on the Friday before the date set for trial:

Offset token friday_before_noon means 12:00 p.m. on the Friday preceding the date set for trial. Three separate acts, not one: file, serve, and hand deliver a paper courtesy set. This is a calendar Friday, not a court day count. Do not treat the department standing orders as pushing this deadline later. Departments 3 and 5 set a later deadline for the COURTESY HARD COPY only, and neither order mentions filing or service. Absent an order from the trial judge, file and serve by noon Friday and deliver the courtesy set on the department's schedule.

any stipulations on factual or legal issues;

The county rule does not require a meet and confer to generate stipulations. Department 3 does: "Counsel shall meet and confer in advance of the pretrial conference regarding factual stipulations on uncontroverted matters and place such stipulations in writing to be read into the record." Department 5 says the same in substance. Complex Civil Guidelines XIII.1(l) requires the written stipulation to be filed and read aloud into the record in jury trials.

a copy of the operative pleadings (complaint, cross-complaint(s), answer(s));

Worth flagging on a construction defect docket with amended complaints and a stack of cross-complaints: the requirement is the OPERATIVE pleadings, so the set has to be assembled deliberately. This is the one county item that appears in neither department standing order and not in the complex list either, so the county rule is its only source.

A party who is required, under these Rules, the California Rules of Court or otherwise, to lodge copies or to submit courtesy copies of certain documents at the request of the trial judge or other judge, shall continue to deliver such documents in paper form. In the Civil Division, such documents shall be delivered to Court Services with the Department number on the front page.

This is the delivery-address answer for the Rule 9(C) courtesy set. Rule 9(C) says the trial department, or Court Services if none has been assigned. General Rule 6(E) says Civil Division lodgings go to Court Services with the department number on the front page. Write the department number on the cover sheet.

During trial, a party may submit to the courtroom clerk and serve by hand any pleadings, as long as the pleadings are also filed electronically before the close of business no later than the following court day.

This is the rule for anything generated mid-trial: a supplemental trial brief, a new in limine motion, a bench brief on an evidentiary fight. Hand it up and e-file it by close of business the next court day. The draft missed this entirely.

Unless otherwise ordered by the Court, counsel in jury trials shall provide the Court with complete hard copy the following by 12:00 pm on the last court day before the date set for trial: all in limine motions; exhibit lists, except impeachment exhibits; witness lists, except impeachment witnesses; jury instruction requests (see further discussion below); proposed verdict forms; any stipulations on factual or legal issues; a statement of the case; trial briefs; and any proposed special jury voir dire questions or proposed jury questionnaires.

NARROWED from the draft. The order speaks only to providing the court with hard copies. It does not mention filing or service and does not by its terms displace Rule 9(C)'s noon-Friday filing and service deadline. Do not tell a practitioner the deadline moved. Also: "Please email a courtesy copy of all e-filed documents to the court (cc'ing all counsel). The department email is: department3@scscourt.org". The bench trial version drops jury instruction requests, verdict forms and voir dire material and keeps the in limine motions, exhibit lists, witness lists, stipulations, statement of the case and trial briefs on the same 12:00 p.m. deadline. Neither version carries Rule 9(C)(7)'s operative pleadings item, so file that one under the county rule. Because the quotation spans a pleading-paper line-number rail, the printed page shows line numbers 15 through 18 interrupting it.

Unless otherwise ordered by the court, counsel in jury trials shall provide the court with courtesy hard copies of the following documents by noon on the court day before the start of trial: all in limine motions; exhibit lists, except impeachment exhibits; witness lists, except impeachment witnesses; jury instruction requests (see further discussion below); proposed verdict forms; any stipulations on factual or legal issues; a statement of the case; trial briefs; and any proposed special jury voir dire questions or proposed jury questionnaires.

NARROWED from the draft. The order says "courtesy hard copies" in terms, so it plainly governs the courtesy set and not the Rule 9(C) filing and service deadline. The order opens by pointing back at the county rule: "Please review the court's civil local rules pertaining to trial and related matters (primarily, Rule 9)." Bench trial version drops the jury material and keeps the rest on the same noon deadline. Department email department5@scscourt.org.

At the meet and confer, the parties shall: 1. Prepare a Joint Statement of the Case. 2. Prepare a Joint Witness List, excluding impeachment or rebuttal witnesses, with accurate time estimates.

Anchor is the pre-trial conference, not the trial date. Items 3 through 8 verbatim: "3. Exchange exhibits and inspect photos and diagrams (to be submitted on the date of trial), excluding those contemplated to be used for impeachment or rebuttal. Stipulate to all facts amenable to stipulation. 4. Prepare a Joint List of Controverted Issues. If all the parties fail to agree to an issue as controverted or uncontroverted, then the issue is controverted. (Required for both jury and non-jury trials). 5. Exchange all motions in limine. 6. Prepare voir dire questions for the Court to include when examining the panel. 7. Execute the Statement of Compliance indicating counsel has complied with the Local Rules and these Guidelines. 8. Prepare joint proposed jury instructions (CACI only) and verdict forms, and exchange disputed instructions." The witness list goes in a prescribed table (Witness, Party, Direct, Cross, Redirect, Total, Subject), in minutes not hours, last name first with titles after the comma so the lists sort.

Unless the case was settled at the Mandatory Settlement Conference or dismissed in full prior thereto, or unless otherwise ordered by the Court, the following items must be delivered to the department on the morning of the first day of trial:

Nine items, tracking Local Civil Rule 9(C) with three differences. The in limine item is expanded to "all in limine motions and a list of the in limine motions." The exhibit item reads "exhibit lists/indices." The witness list item is expanded: "each witness listed shall include a succinct (no more than one or two sentences) statement of the general subject matter of the witness' testimony and an estimate of the time that will be required for the direct examination of each such witness." There is a deposition item the county rule does not have, and the complex list drops the copy of the operative pleadings. This conflicts with Rule 9(C)'s Friday-noon deadline, and the guidelines resolve it through Rule 9(C)'s own "unless otherwise ordered by the Court" clause.

witness lists, except impeachment witnesses, and unusual scheduling problems;

The county rule requires no time estimates and no subject matter synopsis. Both are required in complex cases, where the guidelines also prescribe a table (Witness, Party, Direct, Cross, Redirect, Total, Subject), time in minutes rather than hours, and last name first with titles after the comma so the lists sort.

exhibit lists, except impeachment exhibits;

The county rule requires a list only. No form, no columns, no numbering convention, and no joint-versus-separate instruction. Both published department orders add real content: an editable Word version to the courtroom clerk, specific descriptions rather than entries like documents produced by opponent in discovery, and a numbering convention where plaintiff starts at a mutually agreed number and the same document offered by both sides carries the same number. The complex version is "exhibit lists/indices, except impeachment exhibits."

trial exhibits may not be filed, but must be lodged with the trial department when known;

The phrase "when known" is doing real work. Because the trial department is assigned at the trial assignment hearing, the exhibits may not be lodgeable on the Friday deadline. Read with General Court and Administrative Rule 6(D)(2) and 6(G), which bar electronic filing of proposed trial exhibits and require paper lodging with the trial department once assigned.

Proposed trial exhibits shall not be filed electronically but shall be lodged in paper format with the trial department once assigned, unless otherwise instructed by the Court.

The same sentence appears in substance at General Rule 6(D)(2), headed TRIAL EXHIBITS NOT TO BE FILED ELECTRONICALLY, and General Rule 6(E) lists trial exhibits among documents that "must not be filed electronically." Civil Rule 6(A) sends represented parties to the General Rules, which is why this governs a civil trial set. Santa Clara has mandatory e-filing for represented parties in all civil cases under General Rule 6(B)(1). Trial exhibits are a carve-out from FILING only. Electronic PRESENTATION is a separate question and is expressly allowed in the complex departments and possible by leave in Department 5.

Unless otherwise agreed upon and approved by the Court, the Court requires that each party offering exhibits be prepared with multiple identical and identically pre-numbered sets of all trial exhibits (other than unique and irreproducible physical objects), one for each of the following:

The four bullets are the bench, the clerk, the witness or witness stand, and each party unless the party waives the hard copy. Then: "Accordingly, this typically means a minimum of four full sets of pre-numbered exhibits, plus a further copy for each additional party, if any, beyond the minimum two." Also in the same section: "Counsel shall provide the courtroom clerk with an Exhibit List in an editable Word version"; "Plaintiff's exhibits shall start with a mutually agreed upon number and proceed sequentially" with the same document offered by both sides carrying the same number; "Counsel shall pre-mark all exhibits before the testimony of witnesses that they pertain to, unless used for impeachment"; and "The Court is unlikely to allow parties to use exhibits that were not identified and marked before trial unless they are truly rebuttal or impeachment exhibits." This is the practical answer to what goes in the trial binder in Department 3, and it is a department order, not a county rule. It flatly contradicts the Complex Civil Guidelines, which forbid pre-marking.

Accordingly, this typically means a minimum of four full sets of pre-numbered exhibits. If either party anticipates needing more than four exhibit binders, please notify the court in advance to discuss alternative arrangements. In certain circumstances, the court may permit the use of electronic exhibits instead of hard-copy binders.

Missing from the draft entirely, and it is the sentence that defeats two of the draft's negatives at once: it uses the word binder for trial exhibits, and it contemplates electronic exhibits. The set requirement reads: "Unless otherwise agreed upon and approved by the court, the court requires that each party offering exhibits be prepared with multiple identical and identically pre-numbered sets of all trial exhibits (other than unique and irreproducible physical objects), one for each of the following:" followed by the judge, the clerk, the witness, and the other side unless the hard copy is waived. Also: "Counsel shall provide the courtroom clerk with an Exhibit List in an editable Word version"; "Counsel shall pre-mark all exhibits before the testimony of witnesses to which they pertain, unless used for impeachment"; and the same unlikely-to-allow preclusion sentence Department 3 carries. If more than four binders are anticipated, notify the court in advance.

Counsel must provide the Court with the exhibits, plus one copy. Exhibits will be marked by the Courtroom Clerk, as they are identified, in chronological order. Exhibits shall not be pre-marked by counsel.

Numbering caveat, stated because the citation has to be precise: the table of contents lists this material as "XIV. TRIAL EXHIBITS ... 18," but the body renders it as subsection xii under XIII.8 Jury Trials, with lettered parts a, b and c. Cited to both so a reader can find it either way. This flatly contradicts both published department standing orders, which require counsel to pre-mark all exhibits and to bring a minimum of four identical pre-numbered sets. Confirm which department you are in before you number anything. Same section: "Enlargements and transparencies normally will not be admitted into evidence," with any large exhibit accompanied by an 8.5 by 11 version carrying the exhibit tag, and "Before trial commences, counsel will be asked to sign a stipulation for the return and maintenance of exhibits when the trial is completed. Plaintiff will maintain joint exhibits, unless otherwise stipulated."

Parties must exchange exhibits excluding documents for bona fide impeachment at the Pre-Trial Meet and Confer. Each counsel must provide the Court with an EXHIBIT LIST describing each exhibit, indicating whether the exhibit is to be admitted into evidence by stipulation.

Anchor is the pre-trial meet and confer, which under XII happens at least 10 days before the pre-trial conference, which is itself 10 to 15 days before trial. So the exhibit exchange in a complex case can be three weeks or more before trial, far earlier than the county rule's Friday-noon deadline.

Exhibits may be in either electronic or physical form. Physical exhibits are not required to be presented in a digitized format.

Included specifically to correct the draft's claim that Santa Clara publishes no electronic exhibit option and that the rules require the opposite. Preceding sentence: "The electronic representations of such exhibits may be presented to the jury/Court as substitutes for the exhibits themselves." Following sentence: at the conclusion of trial the court may order a photo substituted and stored electronically in lieu of the physical evidence. The e-filing prohibition in General Rule 6(D)(2) and 6(G) is about FILING, not about presentation.

Responses to interrogatories and requests for admission that are expected to be used at trial must be extracted and lodged with the Court, and a copy given to counsel, at the appropriate time. In jury trials, questions and answers must be read into the record, subject to proper objections. The extracts may be submitted as exhibits in a Court trial. In no case will entire sets of written discovery documents be lodged or received.

Practical for a construction defect trial where the discovery record runs to thousands of pages across dozens of subcontractors. Pull the responses you will actually use and lodge the extracts. Do not hand up the sets.

jury instruction requests, except for instructions that cannot reasonably be anticipated prior to trial;

The county rule does not say CACI only, does not require joint instructions, does not require a Word version, and sets no copy count. Both published departments do all of that, and the complex guidelines add markup against the official CACI version.

A list of requested jury instructions (CACI) shall be submitted to the Court by 12:00 pm the day before the day set for trial.

Offset corrected from the draft. The order says "the day before the day set for trial" with no reference to a court day, while the packet deadline two paragraphs earlier in the same order says "the last court day before the date set for trial." Two different formulas, and over a holiday weekend they fall on different days. Do not flatten them. Copy count: "Counsel are responsible for providing 16-17 copies (12 for jury, 2-3 for alternates, courtesy copy for judge to read and a copy to be filed) of the final instructions to Court and each side should have their own copy." Also: "An edited set of instructions shall be submitted at the earliest possible time after the conclusion of in limine motions if necessary. Any non-CACI or pinpoint instructions shall be submitted in writing."

A list of requested jury instructions (CACI) shall be submitted to the court by noon on the day before the start of trial.

Missing from the draft entirely, which reported the 16 to 17 count as a Department 3 requirement only. Same split as Department 3 between the instruction list deadline ("the day before the start of trial," no court-day language) and the packet deadline ("the court day before the start of trial"). Copy count: "Counsel are responsible for providing 16-17 copies of the final instructions to the court (12 for the jury, two to three for alternates, one for the judge to read, and another copy to be filed)." The order adds that the final instruction hearing happens before closing arguments, which differs from Department 3, where it happens before the instructions are read to the jury.

The Court may send multiple "clean" sets of instructions provided by counsel into the jury room. "Clean" means just the text of the instruction, as corrected. Plaintiff has the primary, but not exclusive, responsibility to provide the "clean" sets, in binders.

Preceding sentences: "CACI instructions are to be used whenever feasible. Submit proposed instructions in Word format. When reasonably possible, mark up the official version rather than retyping so the changes are apparent to the Court and other counsel." No copy count here. Both published civil trial departments give 16 to 17. This is a binder requirement for the deliberation room, not a trial binder requirement, and it is not the only place Santa Clara uses the word binder for trial materials: Department 5's exhibit section does too.

proposed special verdicts;

The rule names special verdicts specifically, does not address general verdict forms, and does not require a joint proposed form. Both department orders use the broader phrase "proposed verdict forms." Complex Civil Guidelines XII.8 requires joint proposed verdict forms prepared at the pre-trial meet and confer.

a concise, non-argumentative statement of the case to be read to the jury in jury trials;

No length limit and no joint requirement in the county rule. Both published departments require a statement of the case in BENCH trials too, not just jury trials. Complex Civil Guidelines XII.1 requires a Joint Statement of the Case prepared at the pre-trial meet and confer.

trial briefs (including an explanation of whether any causes of action have been dismissed or limited, as well as whether any parties have been dismissed);

The dismissed-causes and dismissed-parties disclosure is the part practitioners miss. In a construction defect case with good faith settlements and dismissed subcontractors, this paragraph is the court's map of who is still in. No page limit is published. The complex version of this item is a bare "trial briefs" with no disclosure clause.

Originals of all depositions that may be used during trial are to be lodged with the Clerk before trial begins.

A lodging duty, not a designation duty. Department 3 does not require a page and line specification. The only page and line designation requirement Santa Clara publishes is in the Complex Civil Guidelines.

Originals of all depositions that may be used during trial are to be lodged with the court clerk before trial begins.

Missing from the draft, which said the deposition lodging duty appears only in the Complex Guidelines and Department 3. A lodging duty, not a designation duty.

the original of all deposition transcripts to be used during the course of the trial. If counsel anticipates reading from the deposition transcript for any purpose other than impeachment, counsel must deliver to opposing counsel a written specification of the pages and lines proposed to be read.

This is the only page and line designation requirement Santa Clara publishes anywhere. The word deposition returns zero hits in the civil local rules PDF, which I confirmed myself. The guidelines repeat the lodging duty at XIII.8(xii)(c)(i): "Deposition transcripts that are expected to be used at trial must be lodged with the Court on the first day of trial. Pertinent provisions must be read into the record in jury trials, subject to proper objections. In Court trials, extracts may be submitted and marked as exhibits. In no case will an entire transcript be received." Both published department orders separately require deposition originals lodged before trial begins.

all in limine motions;

The county rule sets no page limit, no numbering convention, no separate statement, and does not say whether the motions travel as one document or several. A list of the in limine motions is required only in the Complex Civil Litigation Departments, by guideline, not by Department 3. Departments 3 and 5 both state that absent special circumstances in limine motions are heard on the record before a jury panel is called.

For general civil cases, except non-CEQA mandate cases, the trial date will be set by the case management judge at a Trial Setting Conference or other conference.

Rule 1(E)(1) defines Trial Setting Conferences as a species of Case Management Conference and Rule 1(E)(4) makes attendance at all of them mandatory: "Attendance at all CMC's is mandatory unless otherwise excused by the Court." The rule fixes no interval between the Trial Setting Conference and trial. Rule 9 prints (Effective 1/1/2026) after each of subdivisions A through E.

Probate and general civil cases subject to this rule will be given a trial assignment date on the Thursday before the first day trial is set to commence.

Offset token thursday_before_trial means the Thursday preceding the first day trial is set to commence. This is a master calendar step. Santa Clara does not direct-assign general civil cases to a trial department at filing. Rule 9(A)(1) puts the civil trial calendar in the hands of the Civil Supervising Judge and sweeps in long-cause probate, unlawful detainer and civil harassment or elder abuse cases, but Rule 9 is a CIVIL rule and is headed TRIAL CALENDAR AND ASSIGNMENT, MANDATORY SETTLEMENT CONFERENCES AND TRIAL IN GENERAL CIVIL CASES.

The Civil Supervising Judge (or a designated judge) will conduct a trial assignment hearing before the assigned trial date. At this hearing, the judge will assign the case to an available trial judge, or, if necessary, place the matter on standby.

This is why Rule 9(C) says courtesy copies go to the trial department "or with Court Services if no trial judge has yet been assigned." The receiving department may not be known when the documents are due. Rule 9(A)(6) adds that a standby case not assigned out by the Thursday of that week goes back on the Civil Supervising Judge's calendar at 2 p.m. one week after the previously set trial week.

For all cases so assigned, trial counsel and parties must be available for trial for the entire week following the trial assignment hearing. If a trial department becomes available at any time during the week following the trial assignment hearing, trial counsel and the parties must be prepared to be sent to that available department for trial at any time during that week.

Practical effect for a construction defect trial team with out-of-county experts: the send-out date is a week-long window, not a date.

The pretrial exchange required by CRC 3.1548(b) must be served no later than 10 days before the pretrial conference. The service of the supplemental exchange required by CRC 3.1548(c), the filing required by CRC 3.1548(d), and the exchange of items required by CRC 3.1551(b), must take place no later than five days before the pretrial conference.

Anchor is the CRC 3.1548(f) pretrial conference set by the case management judge, not the trial date. The row's offset shows the earlier of the two deadlines. Rule 9(E)(1) takes expedited jury trials out of Rule 9(A) through (D) entirely, so the Friday-noon trial document deadline does not apply to them. Rule 9(E)(2) says a voluntary expedited jury trial consent order must be proposed no later than the Trial Setting Conference.

There will be a detailed pre-trial conference 10-15 days before trial to discuss procedural issues and preliminary matters in order to make the trial process as predictable and smooth as possible.

Offset is the near edge of a 10 to 15 day window; treat 10 days as the hard floor for planning. This is a published department guideline for the Complex Civil Litigation Departments, not a local rule. Same section: "At least 10 days before the pretrial conference, counsel shall meet and confer and execute necessary documents listed below." The conference is expressly not for hearing motions in limine, and counsel may appear in person, by telephone or by videoconference unless the court orders otherwise.

If any counsel, a party represented by counsel, or a party unrepresented by counsel, fails to comply with any of the requirements of these 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 thereof, or enter a judgment by default against that party, or impose penalties of a lesser nature as otherwise provided by law, and may order that party or his or her counsel to pay to the moving party the reasonable expenses in making the motion, including reasonable attorney's fees. Alternatively, the Court may impose a monetary sanction.

Quoted in full. This reaches a Rule 9(C) failure by its terms, since Rule 9 is one of "these rules," but the court does not say so expressly. The civil local rules publish no preclusion provision aimed at trial documents. Preclusion language exists at the department level (Department 3 and Department 5 both say the court is "unlikely to allow parties to use exhibits that were not identified and marked before trial unless they are truly rebuttal or impeachment exhibits") and in the complex guidelines (XIII.1(g): counsel "may be deemed to have rested their case if they are not prepared to proceed"). Rule 9(B)(3)(a) and (c) carry their own sanctions warnings for MSC attendance, and Rule 2(E) warns that failure to complete ADR by the ADR review hearing "may lead to sanctions."