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Cal. Rules of Court, rule 5.98 · Article 3. Meet-and-Confer Conferences

Meet-and-confer requirements; document exchange

Verbatim from the official edition

Text — As posted by the Judicial Council of California (read October 22, 2026)

(a) Meet and confer

All parties and all attorneys are required to meet and confer in person, by telephone, or as ordered by the court, before the date of the hearing relating to a Request for Order (FL-300). During this time, parties must discuss and make a good faith attempt to settle all issues, even if a complete settlement is not possible and only conditional agreements are made. The requirement to meet and confer does not apply to cases involving domestic violence.

(b) Document exchange

Before or while conferring, parties must exchange all documentary evidence that is to be relied on for proof of any material fact at the hearing. At the hearing, the court may decline to consider documents that were not given to the other party before the hearing as required under this rule. The requirement to exchange documents does not relate to documents that are submitted primarily for rebuttal or impeachment purposes.

Notes and commentary — not rule text

History

Rule 5.98 adopted effective January 1, 2013.

Title 5, Family and Juvenile Rules-Division 1, Family Rules-Chapter 6, Request for Court Orders-Article 4, Evidence at Hearings; 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_98
Text hash
sha256 69177ff6c51266ddf5b9944d22161a9b6c7f9976cf066dfad590d9537390fd61
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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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.