Sutter County trial binder and trial document requirements
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.
The short answer
- What the deadlines run off
- Not published
- Departments with their own order
- 1 publish their own order
- County trial binder rule
- None in the county rules 1 of its departments require one.
- Rules this court publishes
- 14
The county rule is a floor. Where your department publishes its own order, that order controls and it is usually stricter.
Find your department
One department in this county publishes its own trial preparation order. Each one below links directly, so you can send a colleague straight to theirs.
Courtroom 1. This is the court's civil trial courtroom. Sutter assigns no numbered civil department and publishes no department-level policy for it., Sutter County Superior Courthouse, 1175 Civic Center Blvd, Yuba City, CA 95993. Confirmed the court's only location from the Locations and Contact Info page, which carries one address and one Get Directions link.
Who is sitting here
- Trial documents
- No pretrial filing of any kind is required by this form. CV-03 is a stipulation counsel prepare to get trial dates set. Once the judge signs it, it becomes the order fixing the trial sequence. The printed text fixes, in Courtroom 1 in every instance: a settlement conference on the Wednesday 13 days before trial at 9:00am, with personal presence required by counsel and by those holding settlement authority unless the judge excuses it in advance; a trial readiness conference on the Monday before trial at 2:00pm; and a jury trial beginning the following Tuesday at 9:00am, or a court trial at 9:00am. Two conditions on getting the dates: counsel must clear the date with the calendar clerk or check the court's public calendar and find no more than six other matters already set that day, and the trial date must be within nine months of the date the parties sign. Counsel hand the clerk addressed prepaid envelopes for notice; if they do not, notice is treated as waived. No trial brief deadline, no exhibit list deadline, no witness list deadline, no jury instruction deadline, no motion in limine deadline, no meet and confer requirement. Related civil form: CV-05 At-Issue Memorandum, optional, revised July 1, 2018, which carries a jury demand, a preference question and a trial time estimate, and gives a party who disagrees with the estimate 10 days to serve a memorandum of its own. One item from the county local rules bears directly on preparing a civil trial here and sits outside Chapter 3: local rule 2.0(b) states the court does not regularly provide official court reporters or electronic recording for civil hearings or civil trials. A party who wants a record has to hire one.
- Binder
- No trial binder, notebook or exhibit binder requirement is published, and there is no instruction on tabs, indexes, paper versus electronic, or lodging deadlines. But the categorical negative is wrong and the draft got this wrong: the court does publish a civil copy-count instruction and an exhibit-handling instruction. Both are on the Civil Division's Unlawful Detainer page, verbatim and in both the landlord and tenant sections: "You will need to bring three copies of each paper with you: one for the judge, one for the defendant and one for yourself." and "During the trial, the bailiff will take any exhibits from you and give them to the judge." That is self-help guidance for unlawful detainer trials, not a Courtroom 1 order, and it should not be extrapolated to general civil. Separately, the court's Electronic Filing Procedures list "Trial exhibits" among documents that shall not be filed electronically, so exhibits reach the courtroom in paper, with a notice of filing e-filed instead. The court does not say in what form or on what schedule.
- In limine
- Not addressed. No deadline and no procedure for motions in limine is published by this courtroom, by the county local rules, or by any Sutter local form. A site-wide crawl of all 118 pages returns zero body-text hits for "in limine". Practitioners fall back on Code of Civil Procedure section 1005(b) and the California Rules of Court with no local supplement. The court issues no tentative rulings and requires appearances, so an in limine set will be argued live.
- Difference
- It does not differ, and I confirmed that against the county rule rather than assuming it. Chapter 3 CIVIL RULES of the Local Rules amended July 1, 2018 contains exactly one rule, 3.0 CASE MANAGEMENT, covering scope, the definition of a general civil case, uninsured motorist cases, three delay-reduction plans at 12, 18 and 24 months, exemption of exceptional cases, and the case management conference. I read it line by line. There is no trial-preparation rule for a department policy to depart from. CV-03 is itself the county-wide form, so there is no department layer sitting on top of it. The one civil trial provision elsewhere in the county rules, rule 2.0(b) on court reporters, is court-wide and CV-03 does not touch it. Practical upshot for a Sutter civil trial: the only local timing the court imposes is the settlement conference 13 days out and the trial readiness conference the Monday before, both from CV-03, both in Courtroom 1. Everything else, trial binder, exhibit lists, witness lists and in limine motions, runs on the California Rules of Court and whatever the assigned judge orders on the record. Get the courtroom's actual expectations from the Civil Division at (530) 822-3304 or at the trial readiness conference.
The order in its own words
Personal presence is required by counsel and those with settlement authority to resolve the case, unless authorized specifically by the judge in advance of the settlement conference. ... The clerk shall give notice to pro pers / counsel of record using the addressed, prepaid envelopes provided. [Both sentences confirmed character for character in the PDF text layer. The courtroom-fixing lines run "A settlement conference is set for Wednesday (13 days prior to trial):" then a fill-in field then "at 9:00am in Courtroom 1.", "A trial readiness conference is set for Monday (Monday before trial):" then a fill-in field then "at 2:00pm in Courtroom 1.", and "A" then a fill-in field then "-day jury trial is set to begin Tuesday:" then a fill-in field then "at 9:00am in Courtroom 1." The draft rendered those blanks as underscore runs; the underscores are the draft's insertion and are not in the document.]
Why your department can set a different date
The local rules contain no express delegation to a department or judge. There is nothing on the face of the civil chapter saying the assigned judge will set trial document requirements. The delegation is structural rather than stated. Chapter 3 consists of one rule, 3.0 Case Management, and Rule 3.0(f)(iv) ends by pointing to the case management order: The court shall enter orders as specified in CRC 3.728. So whatever a Sutter civil case requires before trial comes from the CRC 3.728 case management order and from the trial readiness conference, not from a published local rule. The court's optional CV-03 form is signed by a judge and calendars everything into Courtroom 1, which points to a single civil courtroom rather than multiple departments with separate practices. Hon. Tahmina Morrow is the judge listed for Civil on the court's judicial officers page. Nothing that judge or any other judge of this court publishes about trial documents exists on the open web.
How your courthouse changes things
One courthouse, no branches. Sutter County Superior Courthouse, 1175 Civic Center Boulevard, Yuba City, CA 95993, phone 530-822-3304 for civil, clerk's office hours Monday through Friday 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The address is in Yuba City, which is the county seat of Sutter County and not in Yuba County, a trap for anyone keying off the city name. Civil, probate and conservatorship matters are set Mondays at 9:00 a.m., and when Monday is a holiday those hearings move to Tuesday. No date reservation is needed; a party submits the moving papers with the fee or a fee waiver application and picks a day that allows time for service. Guardianship and adoption matters sit Fridays at 8:30 a.m. and do not move when Monday is a holiday. Civil ex parte hearings are 8:30 a.m. Tuesday through Friday by appointment only, arranged with the civil clerk, with notice to all parties by 10:00 a.m. the court day before under Cal. Rules of Court, rule 3.1203. Telephonic appearances are permitted at the hearings listed in Cal. Rules of Court, rule 3.670(c), through CourtCall, prearranged no later than three days before the hearing. The CV-03 order puts the settlement conference, the trial readiness conference and the trial itself in Courtroom 1.
County rules, area by area
These are the 14 rules this court publishes county wide. They apply everywhere in the county, and your department can require more.
Trial readiness conference
-1 day, keyed to trial The CV-03 order sets a trial readiness conference for the Monday before trial at 2:00 p.m. in Courtroom 1. Where jury trial is set, it begins the next morning.
Rule text and note
A trial readiness conference is set for Monday (Monday before trial): [blank] at 2:00pm in Courtroom 1.
This is the only place in anything the court publishes where a civil trial readiness conference appears. It is not in the local rules, and I confirmed that by reading Chapter 3 end to end off rendered page images. The -1_day offset holds for a jury trial, which the same order sets for the Tuesday. The court trial line carries no day of the week, so on a court trial the Monday can sit further out. The form does not say what must be filed, served or lodged for the conference and requires no joint statement, witness list, exhibit list or binder. [blank] marks the fill-in line.
Mandatory settlement conference
13 days before trial When the parties set trial by stipulation on the court's CV-03 form, the judge's signed order sets a settlement conference for the Wednesday 13 days before trial, at 9:00 a.m. in Courtroom 1. The local rules themselves create no civil settlement conference.
Rule text and note
A settlement conference is set for Wednesday (13 days prior to trial): [blank] at 9:00am in Courtroom 1.
Verified against the form itself, which I pulled and read. This is a local form approved for optional use, not a local rule. The Order paragraphs carry no numbers or letters, so the cite is to the paragraph by name. [blank] marks the fill-in line. The 13 day count is coherent because the same order sets jury trial for a Tuesday, and a Tuesday less 13 days is a Wednesday, which lands in the week before the week before trial. The court trial line on the same form fixes no day of the week, so on a court trial do not assume the Wednesday and the 13 days line up. The form calls this a settlement conference, not a mandatory settlement conference. It names no brief, statement or other document for the conference.
At the mandatory settlement conference Counsel and a person holding settlement authority must appear in person at the settlement conference. Only the judge can excuse the appearance, and only in advance.
Rule text and note
Personal presence is required by counsel and those with settlement authority to resolve the case, unless authorized specifically by the judge in advance of the settlement conference.
Quotation confirmed character for character on the form. The client is not named. The duty runs to counsel and to whoever holds authority, which in an insured construction defect matter usually means an adjuster. Nothing in the form or the local rules requires a settlement conference statement.
Other
Set by the court The CV-03 order sets jury trial to begin on a Tuesday at 9:00 a.m. in Courtroom 1, with the number of trial days written into the order. A court trial is set on the same order with no fixed day of the week.
Rule text and note
A [blank]-day jury trial is set to begin Tuesday: [blank] at 9:00am in Courtroom 1.
Confirmed on the form. The court trial line reads: court trial is set to begin: [blank] at 9:00am in Courtroom 1, with no day of the week. The jury demand is made on the same form at paragraph 3, which reads Select one, then offers a line for the party requesting a jury trial and a check box reading: The parties waive their right to a trial by jury. [blank] marks a fill-in line. Courtroom 1 is the form's default. Local Rule 2.0(a) shows the court runs Departments 1, 2, 3, A and B, and the court's Remote Appearance page puts Monday morning civil appearances in Courtroom 1 or Courtroom 2, so do not treat Courtroom 1 as the only civil courtroom.
Set by the court A party using the CV-03 stipulation represents that, before filing it, counsel cleared the trial and settlement conference dates with the calendar clerk, or checked the court's online calendar and saw no more than six other matters set, and that the trial date falls within nine months of signature. The dates are not firm until the judge signs.
Rule text and note
Counsel have contacted the calendar clerk of the Sutter County Superior Court, prior to filing this Stipulation, and the calendar clerk has agreed that the trial and settlement conference dates and times are available or reviewed the court's calendar at www.suttercourts.com and at the time there appeared to be no more than six other matters calendared, and the trial date selected is within nine months of the time of signature of the parties.
Quotation confirmed character for character. The form is optional, so this is a representation counsel makes by using it, not a duty imposed on every litigant. Paragraph 2 reads: Counsel understand that the trial and settlement conference dates selected are not firm until such time as the Court signs the order below. Paragraph 4 asks for addressed and postage prepaid envelopes for the clerk to give notice of the order, and states that if envelopes are not provided it is assumed all parties have waived notice of the selected dates.
10 court days before trial A party who wants to appear remotely by video at trial or any evidentiary hearing must file and serve a Notice of Remote Appearance, form RA-010, at least ten court days before. Three court days is the deadline for all other hearings.
Rule text and note
A party requesting to appear remotely must file and serve a NOTICE OF REMOTE APPEARANCE (RA-010) at least ten (10) court days before the scheduled hearing for an evidentiary hearing or trial or three (3) court days before all other hearings.
New row. The draft missed this page entirely. This is court published and it is not a local rule, so it sits outside the 2018 rule set the way the Civil FAQs do. The page states the underlying authority as CCP section 367.75 and Cal. Rules of Court, rule 3.672, and says the court may permit an appearance by LifeSize. Once an appearance is authorized the party emails remoteapp@suttercourts.com for connection information. Separately, and on a different track, a telephonic appearance on a Monday morning calendar in Courtroom 1 or Courtroom 2 is arranged by calling CourtCall on or before the Thursday before the appearance.
3 court days before trial An opposing party who wants to contest a noticed remote appearance at trial or an evidentiary hearing must file and serve form RA-015 at least three court days before the hearing.
Rule text and note
A response to a notice of a remote appearance must be filed and served using OPPOSITION TO REMOTE PROCEEDING AT EVIDENTIARY HEARING OR TRIAL (RA-015) by any opposing party at least three (3) court days before the scheduled hearing.
New row, companion to the RA-010 row. Court published, not a local rule. RA-010 and RA-015 are Judicial Council forms, not Sutter local forms, so they do not appear on the county's local forms list.
See the rule, keyed to trial Trial exhibits are on the court's published list of documents that may not be filed electronically. Civil e-filing is otherwise mandatory in this court, so trial exhibits reach the court in paper. Nothing in this provision requires an exhibit list.
Rule text and note
The following documents shall not be filed electronically: ... Trial exhibits
Recategorized from Exhibit lists to Other, because this is about the exhibits themselves and reads as an exhibit-list rule if filed the other way. Quotation confirmed. Trial exhibits is the third bullet in a ten item list that also covers bench warrants, deposits of cash or check, bonds, undertakings, probate letters, wills and codicils, sealed documents, certain Probate Code section 2620 documents, and California state vital records forms. The ellipsis stands for the two bullets above it. The same page adds: A notice of filing any of the above exempted documents must be filed electronically. Local Rule 2.2(h) is the hook and reads: A list of documents that shall not be filed electronically is included in the court's electronic filing requirements, available on the court's website at www.suttercourts.com and in hard copy at the clerk's office. Mandatory civil e-filing comes from Local Rule 2.2(b). The document itself carries no date on its face; the June 20, 2017 date comes from the filename.
At the motion filing A document or exhibit filed in paper because it cannot be converted to electronic format still requires an e-filed and served Notice of Manual Filing that describes the item and gives the reason.
Rule text and note
A party manually filing such a document or exhibit shall file electronically and serve a Notice of Manual Filing specifically describing the document or exhibit, and setting forth the reason the document or exhibit cannot be filed electronically.
Confirmed word for word off a rendered image of printed page 6, because the PDF's OCR layer is degraded. The anchor is the act of filing, not any pretrial conference. The preceding sentence of the same subdivision states the standard: A party may be excused from filing any particular document or exhibit electronically if it is not available in electronic format and it is not feasible for the party to convert the document or exhibit to electronic format, or it may not be comprehensively viewed in an electronic format, including but not limited to exhibits that are real objects.
At trial During trial a party may hand documents to the courtroom clerk and serve them by hand, but the same documents must be e-filed by close of business the next court day.
Rule text and note
During trial, a party may submit to the courtroom clerk and serve by hand any documents, as long as the documents are also filed electronically before the close of business no later than the following court day.
Confirmed word for word off a rendered image of printed page 6. This is the only sentence in the entire local rule set that addresses what happens with paper during a civil trial. Permissive as to delivery, mandatory as to the follow up e-filing. The subdivision label is confirmed by the fact that the next labeled subdivision on the same page is (i), Obligation to Keep Information Current.
+10 days after service, keyed to the motion filing The court publishes an optional At-Issue Memorandum, form CV-05, carrying the jury demand, any claim of preference, the trial time estimate, and a declaration under penalty of perjury that all essential parties have been served or have appeared. A party who disagrees with the information or the estimate has ten days after service to serve and file its own memorandum.
Rule text and note
A party not in agreement with the information or estimates given in this at-issue memorandum shall, within 10 days after service thereof, serve and file a memorandum on the party's behalf.
Quotation confirmed character for character on the form. The token +10_days_after_service means ten days running from service of the at-issue memorandum, not from any trial or conference date. None of the eight listed anchors covers service of a document, so motion_filing is the nearest fit. The form is marked Optional Form on its face, on the court's Local Forms List by form number, and on the local forms webpage. The declaration reads: All essential parties have been served with process or have appeared and this case is at-issue as to all such parties. Page 2 is a proof of service. No local rule requires an at-issue memorandum and no local rule sets a consequence for the ten day window.
See the rule, keyed to the motion filing A trial continuance requires a noticed motion and the filing fee. A stipulation is enough for law and motion matters and case management conferences, but not for a trial date.
Rule text and note
Requests for continuance of any court and/or jury trials will be considered only by a properly noticed motion and payment of the appropriate filing fees.
Quotation confirmed character for character. Court published but not a local rule, and the local rules say nothing about trial continuances. The same answer contrasts law and motion and CMC continuances, which the court takes by written stipulation with the applicable filing fee, received and signed by the court before the hearing date and time.
Set by the court The only conference the civil local rules create is the case management conference, set no later than 180 days after the complaint is filed. The clerk issues the date at filing and the filing party must serve notice of it with the complaint.
Rule text and note
The court will set a case management conference for all general civil cases except complex cases and cases exempted under CRC 3.721 no later than 180 days after filing of the initial complaint.
Confirmed off a rendered image of printed page 9. The PDF's OCR layer garbles CRC as CPIC here; the printed page reads CRC 3.721. Anchor is court_order because the clerk issues the CMC date at filing, which is the closest fit in the anchor set. Rule 3.0(f)(ii) reads: At the time the case is filed, the clerk shall issue to the filing party a document with the date, time, and place of the first case management conference. It is the responsibility of the filing party to serve all other parties with notice of the case management conference date at the time the complaint is served. Rule 3.0(f)(iii) reads: Each party must file a case management statement pursuant to CRC 3.725. Rule 3.0(b) excludes probate, guardianship, conservatorship, juvenile, small claims, unlawful detainer, family law, CRC 3.740 collections, other civil petitions, and cases assigned to a judge for all purposes based on subject matter. Rule 3.0(d) assigns every general civil case to Plan 1, a 12 month disposition goal, unless reassigned to Plan 2 (18 months) or Plan 3 (24 months) for good cause.
At the court's order Counsel and every self-represented party must attend the case management conference, know the case, and be ready to discuss everything in CRC 3.724 and 3.727. This is the only appearance obligation the civil local rules impose.
Rule text and note
Counsel for each party and each self-represented party appearing in the action shall attend the Case Management Conference and shall be familiar with the case and be fully prepared to discuss all matters stated in CRC 3.724 and CRC 3.727. The court shall enter orders as specified in CRC 3.728.
I rendered printed page 9 at 300 dpi and read it visually to settle this, because the PDF's OCR layer renders the second cite as CRC 3.127. The printed page reads CRC 3.727, which is also the correct rule on subjects to be considered at a case management conference. The draft flagged the discrepancy honestly and was right. CRC 3.728 is the case management order, which is where any trial document schedule in a Sutter civil case will actually come from, since the local rules supply none.
What happens if you miss it
The only enforcement provision in the rule set is the general sanctions rule, which is not trial specific. Local Rule 1.3 reads in full: Failure to comply with any provision of the Local Rules may result in the imposition of sanctions pursuant to CCP 575.2. (Effective 7/01/13). Read off the rendered page image at printed page 2. One other sanctions hook exists in Rule 2.2(g), on redaction: Counsel and parties are solely responsible for redacting personal identifiers and privileged and/or confidential information. The Clerk will not review documents for compliance. The Court may impose sanctions for violation of these requirements. Because the local rules impose no trial document duties at all, Rule 1.3 has nothing trial related to attach to. Any real consequence for a missing witness list, exhibit list, motion in limine, jury instruction set or trial brief in a Sutter civil case will come from the case management order under CRC 3.728, from the judge's own trial readiness order, or from the Code of Civil Procedure and the California Rules of Court. Two adjacent published points that bite in practice: a trial continuance requires a noticed motion and the filing fee, not a stipulation (Civil FAQs), and the court issues no tentative rulings, so appearances are required on law and motion, which includes motions in limine noticed as regular motions (Tentative Rulings page: This Court does not issue Tentative Rulings at this time and appearances are required).
Is a trial binder required at all?
No trial binder or trial notebook requirement is published. The words binder and notebook do not appear anywhere in the local rules, and I searched the full text and read the table of contents and the subject index. Nothing on the court's website requires a joint or per party binder, tabs, an index, courtesy copies for the bench, or a paper or electronic set delivered before trial. The only published rule that touches the physical handling of trial material is the electronic filing exception: trial exhibits are on the court's list of documents that shall not be filed electronically, so they reach the court in paper even though civil e-filing is otherwise mandatory (Electronic Filing Procedures and Requirements, Documents Exempted/Excused from Electronic Filing, incorporated by Local Rule 2.2(h)). Local Rule 2.2(h) also allows a party to hand documents to the courtroom clerk during trial so long as they are e-filed by close of business the next court day. Practical read for a construction defect trial in this county: assume no binder rule, plan on paper exhibits, and get the assigned judge's own requirements at or before the trial readiness conference the Monday before trial, because that is where they will come from and they are not published anywhere.
What this page does not tell you
Not published by this court
Finding
- Chapter 3, the entire civil chapter of the Sutter local rules, consists of a single rule, 3.0 Case Management, running printed pages 8 to 9. The court publishes no local rule on trial preparation, pretrial trial documents, or a trial binder. Confirmed by reading the full chapter on rendered page images, by the table of contents which lists 3.0 CASE MANAGEMENT as the only entry under CHAPTER 3 - CIVIL RULES, and by the subject index which maps Civil rules to Ch.3, pages 8 to 9.
- No local rule on motions in limine. The word limine does not appear anywhere in the 30 page rule set. Searched the full text; the index has no entry.
- No local rule requiring proposed jury instructions. The words instruction and instructions appear nowhere in the rule set in that sense; searched the full text and the index.
- No local rule requiring special or general verdict forms. The word verdict appears nowhere in the rule set.
- No local rule requiring a witness list in a civil case. The only witness list provision in the rule set is in Chapter 5, Juvenile Rules: Local Rule 5.1(b) requires that Witness lists shall be filed with the court and provided to all counsel at least 48 hours prior to the hearing, and that rule governs juvenile dependency hearings, not civil trials. Division confirmed by reading the chapter heading and the surrounding subdivisions on Social Study Reports and CPS.
- No local rule requiring an exhibit list, exhibit numbering convention, or pre-marked exhibits in a civil case. The only exhibit provisions in the rule set are in Local Rule 2.2(h), which concerns whether an exhibit can be filed electronically.
- No local rule requiring a civil trial brief. The court publishes an optional local form numbered CV-04 titled Mandatory Settlement Conference Brief, Long Cause Hearing Brief, Trial Brief, but the form is family law on its face: it is keyed to Petitioner and Respondent, its issue checklist runs custody, visitation, parentage, support, property division and pensions, and it cites Cal. Rules of Court, rules 5.393 and 5.394. No rule requires it in a general civil case and the court's own forms list marks it Optional.
- No local rule requiring a statement of the case or a joint statement of the case.
- No local rule on deposition designations, counter-designations, or objections to designations. The word designation appears once in the rule set, in Local Rule 3.0(c) on uninsured motorist case designation.
- No local rule requiring a trial binder, trial notebook, indexed exhibit set, or courtesy copies for the bench. Neither binder nor notebook appears anywhere in the rule set.
- No local rule setting a civil mandatory settlement conference. The only settlement conference rule in the rule set is Local Rule 5.1(c) in Chapter 5, Juvenile Rules, which sets settlement conferences prior to the jurisdictional hearing in dependency matters.
- No local rule creating a final status conference, issue conference, or trial readiness conference. The trial readiness conference exists only in the Order half of optional Local Form CV-03, and nowhere in the local rules.
- The court issues no tentative rulings in any matter. The Tentative Rulings page reads: This Court does not issue Tentative Rulings at this time and appearances are required. The Civil FAQs say the same, citing Cal. Rules of Court, rule 3.1308.
- The court publishes no department or judge standing orders, general orders, or individual courtroom procedures for civil matters. Confirmed by enumerating all 118 English URLs in the site map, reading the judicial officers page, reading the Local Rules of Court page, and reading News and Events. The only judicial orders published anywhere on the site are two COVID era orders from April 2020.
- Only one edition of the local rules is published. The Local Rules of Court page links a single rules document, the PDF amended July 1, 2018. No later edition exists on the site and none was found elsewhere.
Still open
Gap
- What the assigned judge actually requires in trial documents. The CV-03 order calendars a trial readiness conference for the Monday before trial but says nothing about what is due there, and no department order or courtroom procedure is published. This is the single largest gap and it cannot be closed from the open web. It has to come from a call to the civil clerk at 530-822-3304 or from the case management order in the specific case.
- Whether the case management order the court enters under CRC 3.728 and Local Rule 3.0(f)(iv) carries a standard trial document schedule. No exemplar or template case management order is published.
- Whether the settlement conference set 13 days before trial requires a written settlement conference statement or brief, who it goes to, and when. The CV-03 order requires personal presence and names no document. Family law form CV-04 is not a general civil form.
- Whether a party can set trial in a general civil case other than by the CV-03 stipulation, for example by at-issue memorandum alone or at the case management conference, and what the court does when the parties do not stipulate. Nothing published describes the alternative path.
- Which division CV-04 belongs to. The court's local forms list PDF classifies it Civil; the local forms webpage classifies it Family Law Self-Help; the form's own content and rule citations are family law. Treat it as family law until the clerk says otherwise.
- Whether the court has an unpublished practice on exhibit binders, the number of copies for the clerk, the witness and the bench, or electronic exhibit presentation in Courtroom 1.
- Whether the local rules have been amended since July 1, 2018, in any edition the court has not posted. The page links only the 7-1-2018 PDF, but the CV-03 form was revised February 2, 2026, which shows the court updates its forms without touching the rules.
- Whether the courtroom assignment in the CV-03 order, Courtroom 1, is fixed for all civil trials or is a default that changes case by case. The order hard codes Courtroom 1 for the settlement conference, the trial readiness conference, the jury trial and the court trial.
Sources
Superior Court of California, County of Sutter. Effective July 1, 2013; amended January 1, 2017; amended July 1, 2017; amended July 1, 2018.
Every document read for this county, 14 items
Effective July 1, 2013; amended January 1, 2017; amended July 1, 2017; amended July 1, 2018. Printed on the table of contents page of the PDF and on the cover.
- Court's Local Rules of Court page. Links exactly one rules document, the 7-1-2018 PDF, plus the Electronic Filing Procedures and the two local forms lists. No other rules edition and no general or standing orders are linked here.
- Sutter County Superior Court Local Court Rules, the complete 30 page PDF. Read end to end. Chapter 3 Civil Rules contains one rule, 3.0 Case Management. Chapters 7 and 8 are RESERVED. Pages were rendered to image and read visually because the PDF is a scan with a degraded OCR layer.
- Electronic Filing Procedures and Requirements, June 20, 2017. The document Local Rule 2.2(d) and 2.2(h) incorporate by reference. Lists trial exhibits among the documents that may not be filed electronically.
- Local Form CV-03, Stipulation to Set Settlement Conference and Trial Dates and Order Thereon, effective June 1, 2017, revised February 2, 2026. The only court document that states when the settlement conference and the trial readiness conference sit relative to trial.
- Local Form CV-05, At-Issue Memorandum, revised and adopted July 1, 2018. Jury demand, preference, trial time estimate, and the ten day window to file a counter memorandum.
- Local Form CV-04, Mandatory Settlement Conference Brief, Long Cause Hearing Brief, Trial Brief. Read in full. Despite the CV prefix the content is family law and the form cites Cal. Rules of Court, rules 5.393 and 5.394.
- Local forms page. Lists CV-03 Stipulation to Set Trial (rev. 02/04/2026), CV-04 Trial Brief, and CV-05 At-Issue Memorandum, all marked Optional. No mandatory civil trial form.
- Local Forms List by form number. Every civil form is marked Optional. The only Mandatory local form in the county is juvenile form JV-05.
- Civil division page. Civil, probate and conservatorship matters are set Mondays at 9:00 a.m., moved to Tuesday when Monday is a holiday. Telephonic appearances under Cal. Rules of Court, rule 3.670(c) must be arranged through CourtCall no later than three days before the hearing.
- Civil FAQs. Trial continuances require a noticed motion. No tentative rulings, appearances required for law and motion.
- Tentative Rulings page. Reads in full: This Court does not issue Tentative Rulings at this time and appearances are required.
- Judicial officers page. Six elected judges plus a commissioner. Hon. Tahmina Morrow is listed for Civil. No standing orders, department orders, or individual judge procedures are published on this page or linked from it.
- News and Events. Checked for general orders. Holds budget notices, a retirement notice, and a collections notice. The only judicial orders anywhere on the site are two COVID era orders from April 2020.
- Full site map, 118 English URLs. Enumerated and filtered for order, rule, trial and document pages. No civil standing order, general order, or department procedure document exists anywhere on the site.
Court rules change and department assignments change every January. Check the court’s own page and your department’s order before relying on this.
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