Cal. Rules of Court, rule 5.394 · Chapter 13. Trials and Long-Cause Hearings
Trial or hearing brief
Text — As posted by the Judicial Council of California (read October 22, 2026)
(a) Contents of brief
For cases in which the judge orders each party to complete a trial or hearing brief or other pleading, the contents of the brief must include at least:
(1) The statistical facts and any disputes about the statistical facts. Statistical facts that may apply to the case could include:
(A) Date of the marriage or domestic partnership;
(B) Date of separation;
(C) Length of marriage or domestic partnership in years and months; and
(D) Names and ages of the parties' minor children;
(2) A brief summary of the case;
(3) A statement of any issues that need to be resolved at trial;
(4) A brief statement summarizing the contents of any appraisal or expert report to be offered at trial;
(5) A list of the witnesses to be called at trial and a brief description of the anticipated testimony of each witness, as well as name, business address, and statement of qualifications of any expert witness;
(6) Any legal arguments on which a party intends to rely; and
(7) Any other matters determined by the judge to be necessary and provided to the parties in writing.
(b) Service of brief
The parties must serve the trial or hearing brief on all parties and file the brief with the court a minimum of 5 court days before the trial or long-cause hearing.
Notes and commentary — not rule text
History
Rule 5.394 adopted effective January 1, 2013.
Title 5, Family and Juvenile Rules-Division 1, Family Rules-Chapter 14, Default Proceedings and Judgments; adopted January 1, 2013.
Source of truth
- Edition
- As posted by the Judicial Council of California (read October 22, 2026)
- Official file
- https://courts.ca.gov/cms/rules/index/five/rule5_394
- Text hash
- sha256 52e625029e70cf962be80cb4006fc470466d9d71821e30f61801e8a1387050a0
- Composed by
- compose_crc.py 2026-10-22: the Judicial Council's rule pages read paragraph by paragraph; verify_crc.py's second reading of the Council's per-title PDFs finds every paragraph
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Cited by 1 provision
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California Rules of Court
Procedural information only. Not legal advice and not a substitute for the advice of an attorney. Confirm the current text with the official publisher before relying on it.