Briefing and Hearing

(a) Briefing schedule

Unless otherwise ordered by the court:

(1) Within 5 days after filing its brief, each party must submit an electronic version of the brief that contains hyperlinks to material cited in the brief, including electronically searchable copies of the administrative record, cited decisions, and any other brief in the case filed electronically by the parties. Such briefs must comply with any local requirements of the reviewing court relating to e-briefs.

(2) The petitioner must serve and file its brief within 25 days after the case management conference, unless petitioner served and filed the petition within 10 days of the public agency's issuance of its Notice of Determination, in which case petitioner must file and serve its brief within 35 days after the case management conference.

(3) Within 25 days after the petitioner's brief is filed, the respondent public agency must-and any real party in interest may-serve and file a respondent's brief. Respondents and real parties must file a single joint brief, unless otherwise ordered by the court.

(4) Within 5 days after the respondent's brief is filed, the parties must jointly file an appendix of excerpts that contain the documents or pertinent excerpts of the documents cited in the parties' briefs.

(5) Within 10 days after the respondent's brief is filed, the petitioner may serve and file a reply brief.

(b) Hearing

(1) The hearing should be held within 80 days of the case management conference, extended by the number of days to which the parties have stipulated to extend the briefing schedule.

(2) If the court has, within 90 days of the filing of the petition or complaint, set a hearing date, the provision in Public Resources Code section 21167.4 that petitioner request a hearing date within 90 days is deemed to have been met, and no further request is required.