Yolo County trial binder and trial document requirements

(b) 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.

Page cite corrected to 13 of 44. The page footer on the page bearing 7.9 reads Page 13 of 44 and the court's table of contents reads 7.9 Exhibits . . . 13. The rule sits in Chapter 1, not in the Civil Trials chapter, so reading Rule 13 alone misses it. It reaches civil because Rule 7.2 makes civil e-filing mandatory. The triggering event is assignment of the trial department, which is not a fixed number of days out, so build in lead time. The rule specifies no number of copies, no tabs, no index, no binder format, and no separate set for the clerk, the bench, the witness stand or opposing counsel. Rule 7.9(a) separately requires exhibit attachments to e-filed pleadings to be separated by a single title page identifying the sequence of the exhibit, which is a pleading rule, not a trial exhibit rule.

Not later than fifteen (15) calendar days before the first day of trial, each party shall file and serve: (a) A brief trial statement which shall include: 1. A concise statement of the facts supporting the party's claims or defenses. 2. A statement of admitted or undisputed facts. 3. A statement of issues of law. 4. The names of all witnesses, except impeachment and rebuttal witnesses.

Verified verbatim against the rules PDF I pulled myself. Calendar days, not court days, and the count runs from the first day of trial, not from any pretrial conference. Both file and serve. This is the court's only trial brief equivalent, so the issues of law go here. There is no page limit, no table of authorities requirement, and no separate briefing schedule.

4. The names of all witnesses, except impeachment and rebuttal witnesses.

The rule says names only. No addresses, no summary of expected testimony, no estimate of time on direct, no expert designation. Expert exchange runs under CCP 2034 and whatever the CMC order says. I searched the full rules text for expert witness and for 2034 and got zero hits in the civil chapter.

Counsel shall arrange with the courtroom clerk to pre-mark exhibits outside the presence of the judge or jury before the trial begins on the day those exhibits are to be used. Plaintiffs shall use numbers and defendants shall use letters unless ordered differently by the judge.

Note what this does and does not do. It fixes the numbering convention and the marking mechanic, and it is rolling rather than a single pretrial event, since the trigger is the day each exhibit is used. It does not require a written exhibit list to be filed or served at any point. A search of the full rules text for exhibit list returns zero hits, and Rule 13.2 lists everything due 15 days out without naming one. The only pretrial written notice of exhibits comes from the CMC order or the trial department.

(d) In jury trial cases, jury instructions, unless the Court advises otherwise.

The rule does not say joint or separate, does not require CACI numbering, does not require a clean set plus an annotated set, and does not require the parties to confer on disputed instructions. The unless the Court advises otherwise clause is one of three places where the rules defer expressly to the assigned department.

If a deposition is planned to be used at trial, the proponent of this evidence shall lodge the original deposition with the courtroom clerk before the trial begins.

A lodging duty on the original transcript, not a designation procedure. I searched the full rules text for designation and got zero hits, and the two hits for lodge in the entire document are this rule and Rule 7.9(b). No deadline or format for designating testimony, no counter-designation step, no procedure for objections to designated testimony. Those come from CCP 2025.620, CRC 3.1117, and the trial department.

Not later than fifteen (15) calendar days before the first day of trial, each party shall file and serve: ... (c) All Motions in Limine. Oppositions shall be filed seven (7) calendar days before the first day of trial.

The ellipsis skips subdivisions (a) and (b), each quoted in its own row. The rule says all motions in limine, so a motion held back for the morning of trial has no footing in the local rules, though the trial department can always take one. No page limit, no separate statement, no meet and confer prerequisite, and no requirement that the motions be numbered or combined into one document. A search of the full rules text for meet and confer returns zero hits.

Oppositions shall be filed seven (7) calendar days before the first day of trial.

Calendar days again. This sentence says filed, not filed and served. The preamble's file and serve language governs what each party must produce at the 15 day mark, not this separate sentence, so do not read a service duty out of Rule 13.2(c). Service of the opposition runs through Local Rule 7.2 mandatory electronic filing and service and CCP 1010.6. No reply brief is provided for.

(b) In jury cases, a list of special questions proposed for jury voir dire.

Special questions means questions beyond the court's own voir dire. Voir dire appears exactly once in the 44 numbered pages, here. There is no local rule on a written juror questionnaire, on time limits for attorney voir dire, or on the mini-opening under CRC 3.1540.

Furthermore, evidence contained on stand-alone media, such as a USB drive, that has not been submitted to the court and opposing counsel in advance of the trial will not be admitted or presented. All digital evidence must be exchanged and filed in accordance with pre-trial deadlines.

Quoted verbatim from the page as I retrieved it. Flagged because the consequence is exclusion, which matters more than most numbered rules. The page points to pre-trial deadlines without naming one, and the local rules set no deadline for exchanging digital evidence, so the operative date has to come from the trial department or the CMO. The same page states that all parties supply their own laptops, tablets, media players, cables and adapters, that the court provides no equipment and no troubleshooting, and that each courtroom has VGA, HDMI, a 3.5mm audio port, two 120V outlets and a lectern document camera. That matters for a construction defect trial running photo and video.

Parties wishing to have a court reporter present must request the services in writing five (5) court days prior to the calendar date. Any court associated fees must be paid in advance. All requests shall be made through the Courtroom Support Division. If the services of an official court reporter are not available for a hearing or trial, a party may arrange for the presence of a certified shorthand reporter to serve as an official pro tempore reporter. It is the party's responsibility to pay the reporter's fee.

The rule's own anchor is the calendar date, which for trial means the first day of trial. Companion Rule 6.1 says verbatim that the services of official court reporters are normally not available for civil, family and probate matters, with an exception for LPS Act matters. Five court days is a floor for a single hearing. For a multi-week civil trial a private reporter has to be booked far earlier than this rule suggests. The At-Issue Memorandum, local form YOCV0100, also carries a court reporter request at item 2.d.

(a) A case management conference will be set by the clerk at the time the complaint is filed in approximately 120 days.

Limited collection cases are set 385 days out under Rule 12.2(b) and CRC 3.712(d). Uninsured motorist cases are continued up to 200 days under Rule 12.2(c). Rule 12.2(d) requires plaintiff to serve the Notice of Case Management Conference, the ADR information packet, and any local forms with the complaint. Rule 7.2(a) requires every new civil complaint to include the Notice of Case Management Conference form, with the court filling in date, time and department.

You must file a Case Management Statement 15 days prior to the above date.

New row. The anchoring event is the CMC date the clerk fills in on this form, not the trial date. I pulled this form and read it in full, which the draft had reported as impossible. It is one page. Its complete operative content is the CMC date, time and department blanks, the direction that plaintiff serve it on each defendant with the complaint, and this sentence. A keyword pass returns zero hits for show cause, exhibit, binder, witness, limine and readiness. So the form carries no trial preparation deadline, no exhibit or binder protocol, and, despite what the Case Management Conference Policies page says, no order to show cause. The form's own footer prints the number as Y0CV0142 with a zero; Appendix 1 and the forms page both spell it YOCV0142.

Attendance at the CMC is required, personally or telephonically. A trial date may be set at the first CMC. Trial counsel and backup trial counsel must be specified at the CMC. (If such counsel is not identified, relief from the scheduled trial date may not be based on the ground that counsel is engaged elsewhere.)

Quoted verbatim from the page as I retrieved it. The same page lists the pretrial orders the judge may make at the CMC, including an order assigning a trial date, discovery orders including a discovery cut-off date, and an order scheduling the exchange of expert witness information. It also says the clerk's Notice of Case Management Conference describes the management orders and practice, and that a late or missing Case Management Statement subjects the party to the Order to Show Cause included in that notice. Caution on that last point: I read the notice form and it contains no order to show cause. Treat the OSC as the policy page's characterization and confirm with the clerk before relying on it either way. A Yolo civil case's real trial preparation schedule lives in the CMC minute order and the case management order, not in the local rules.

The conduct of civil trials shall be governed by these Rules except when otherwise governed by statute, the California Rules of Court or by other provisions of the Yolo Superior Court.

The token no_deadline is defined for this row set to mean a scope or authority provision rather than a dated obligation. Rule 1.2 reinforces it: the California Rules of Court are not printed as part of the Yolo Superior Court Rules but are incorporated within them. The front matter says the local rules in general do not duplicate state statutes or the CRC, which is why the civil trial chapter is only four rules long.

If a party or an attorney fails, refuses, or neglects to comply with these rules, the California Rules of Court, or any other rules or statutory requirements, the Court may, after notice and an opportunity to be heard, impose sanctions as authorized by law.

The token no_deadline marks a consequence provision rather than a dated obligation. Rule 1.4 is general and applies across divisions. Rule 13 carries no consequence language of its own, so the hook for a late civil trial statement is Rule 1.4 together with CCP 575.2 and CRC 2.30. The family law MSC rule at 19.1(d) invokes Rule 1.4 expressly and spells out that sanctions may include paying the pro tem settlement officer's hourly rate. The civil chapter has no parallel.