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Chapter 7 (Rules 3.300 and 3.301): the optional Discovery Facilitator Program - the stipulation (Local Court Form ADR-602), the request for assignment, the facilitator's conflict check and the four-hour expectation - and discovery motions and the program.
California > First Appellate District > Contra Costa County > Superior Court of California, County of Contra Costa
Chapter 7. Discovery Motions and the Optional Discovery Facilitator Program Rule 3.300. Optional Discovery Facilitator Program In an attempt to avoid protracted, costly and unnecessary discovery disputes, Civil and Probate Departments listed on the Court’s website provide the option for parties to participate in the Discovery Facilitator Program (“Program”) before filing motions in Court to compel discovery or motions for a discovery-related protective order, except as set forth below, or unless the Court specifically orders otherwise. This includes motions pursuant to CCP Section 1987.1. Cases exempt from the Discovery Facilitator Program The following discovery disputes are not subject to the Program: (a) Cases in which there has been no response to discovery requests. Motions to compel under Code of Civil Procedure, Sections 2030.290(b) or 2031.300(b) shall be filed directly with the Court. . (b) Cases in which trial is less than sixty (60) days away. (c) Motions necessitated solely by a third party’s refusal to comply with a subpoena. (d) Those disputes specifically exempted by the trial judge. (Rule 3.300 revised effective 1/1/24) Rule 3.301. Discovery Motions and the Discovery Facilitator Program (a) Optional referral to Discovery Facilitator Program (1) Parties to a Discovery Motion who wish to use the Program must first complete: 1) a Stipulation to Participate in Discovery Facilitator Program and Toll Related Filing Deadlines (Local Court Form ADR-602); and 2) a Request for Assignment of Discovery Facilitator (Local Court Form ADR-610). Both forms must be submitted to the Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Office of the Contra Costa County Superior Court, either by fax to 925-608-2109, or by email to ADRdiscoveryfacilitator@contracosta.courts.ca.gov. A copy of the Request for Assignment of Discovery Facilitator shall also be served on all parties to the action. The Request for Assignment of Discovery Facilitator (Local Court Form ADR-610) shall provide the name and the fax number and email address of the party who intends to file the Discovery Motion, of all other parties against whom the motion will be filed, and of all other parties in the action. (2) Discovery Facilitators are experienced attorneys who are volunteering their time to assist the Court in resolving these disputes. There is no cost for participation in the Program. The Court does not expect any Discovery Facilitator to spend more than 4 hours on a case. If the Discovery Facilitator estimates that a case may take more than 4 hours, he or she may decline the case by sending a completed “Notice of Termination of Appointment of Discovery Facilitator” (Local Court Form ADR- 615) stating that the matter is expected to take longer than 4 hours to the ADR Office. (3) Cases that are not subject to the Discovery Facilitator Program pursuant to Local Rule 3.301(a)(3) will be set for OSC or a Discovery Conference within sixty (60) days. The Court will preview the issues with the parties, give guidance on alternatives, and encourage meaningful “meet and confer” sessions and discussion of the need to appoint a Discovery Referee. The Court may set a date for hearing on a discovery motion, or impose issue or monetary sanctions, as appropriate. (b) Discovery Facilitators (1) The Martinez Civil Clerk’s Office shall maintain a list of Discovery Facilitators. Cases shall be assigned to Discovery Facilitators in the order in which they appear on the list. (2) Before notifying the parties of the assignment of a Discovery Facilitator, the ADR Office shall contact the proposed Discovery Facilitator to confirm availability and willingness to serve. (3) Within three (3) calendar days of being contacted, the proposed Discovery Facilitator shall perform a conflict of interest check. A Discovery Facilitator shall decline the assignment if he or she knows of facts that would serve as grounds for disqualification under CCP § 170.1 if the Discovery Facilitator were a Judicial Officer. The Discovery Facilitator shall also inform the ADR Office of any disclosures he or she deems appropriate to be forwarded to the parties. (4) Discovery Facilitators shall have the following minimum requirements: 10 years of experience in Civil or Probate Litigation. (c) Assignment of Discovery Facilitator (1) The ADR Office shall serve a Notice of Assignment of Discovery Facilitator (Local Court Form ADR-612) within twenty (20) calendar days of receipt of a Request for Assignment of Discovery Facilitator. (2) Rejection of Assigned Discovery Facilitator. (A) Parties to the proposed motion shall have ten (10) calendar days after service of the Notice of Assignment to serve on the ADR Office and the parties in the action a Rejection of Assigned Discovery Facilitator (Local Court Form ADR-617). If the Discovery Facilitator is rejected, a second Discovery Facilitator will be appointed. If any party rejects the second Discovery Facilitator, the ADR Coordinator shall notify the parties that the matter will not proceed in the Program. (B) If no Rejection of Assigned Discovery Facilitator is served within ten (10) calendar days of service of the original Notice of Assignment of Discovery Facilitator, the Notice of Assignment of Discovery Facilitator is confirmed. (d) Hearing of discovery dispute (1) The Discovery Facilitator shall hold a hearing on the discovery dispute no later than thirty (30) days after confirmation of the assignment of the Discovery Facilitator. Parties may stipulate in writing to extend the 30-day deadline or it may be extended by the Facilitator for good cause that supersedes the policy of the Program for expedited resolution. (2) One of the purposes of this Discovery Facilitator Program is to narrow the number of discovery disputes, should a hearing ever be required before a judicial officer. Another purpose is to allow for informal resolution of discovery disputes at a lower cost to the parties than they would otherwise incur. Therefore, the format of briefing done for a hearing before a Discovery Facilitator should be brief, practical, and informal. Within these guidelines, the Discovery Facilitator has the discretion to determine the format of briefing required or whether any briefing will be required, and the schedule for service of such briefing. The Discovery Facilitator shall also have discretion to determine the structure of the hearing, including appearances by telephone or video. (3) If the Discovery Facilitator determines that the hearing cannot be scheduled or completed within thirty (30) days of the date of confirmation of the assignment of the Discovery Facilitator because of conduct of one of the parties, the Discovery Facilitator shall issue a Finding of Non-Compliance, specifying the party and/or attorney responsible. In the event a formal Discovery Motion is subsequently filed, the moving party shall attach a copy of the Finding of Noncompliance to its papers as an exhibit and may submit a brief, factual, non-argumentative recitation of the facts regarding the non-compliance. (4) The Discovery Facilitator Program is not a mediation program. The Discovery Facilitators are not mediators, and the proceedings under this Program are not subject to mediation confidentiality rules. While the Facilitator may encourage compromises in discussion at or before the hearing in order to narrow or settle disputes, Discovery Facilitators should not simply try to produce a compromise at any cost. In making his or her recommendations, the Discovery Facilitator will give an opinion on the merits of the dispute in a manner that he or she believes is consistent with applicable law. (5) If the discovery dispute is completely resolved at or before the hearing, the parties will confirm the terms of the resolution in writing, and the appointment of the Discovery Facilitator will terminate automatically, unless the Discovery Facilitator and the parties agree that the Facilitator will continue to serve. (6) If the discovery dispute is not completely resolved at the hearing, the Discovery Facilitator shall, within ten (10) days of the completion of the hearing, serve a document on the parties entitled “Recommendations of Discovery Facilitator and Termination of Appointment of Discovery Facilitator” (Local Court Form ADR-616). The Recommendation may be on the merits of the motion, may be a recommendation that the matter be referred to the assigned judge for decision, may be that the parties are ordered to meet and confer and to provide a report to the Court of the results of such meeting and the matters that remain in dispute, or that a formal Discovery Referee be appointed. The Discovery Facilitator may require the substantially prevailing party to do the initial draft of the recommendations. If so, this initial draft shall not be required to be sent to the opposing party for approval as to form, but rather will be sent directly to the Discovery Facilitator. (7) The date the Discovery Facilitator serves the “Recommendations of Discovery Facilitator and Termination of Appointment of Discovery Facilitator” (Local Court Form ADR-616) shall be the date of termination of the Program for purposes of the tolling agreement of the parties provided in Local Court Form ADR-602. The motion filing deadline shall be per statute including any tolling period agreed to by the parties. Any moving papers shall include, as the first exhibit, a declaration that the parties have completed the Discovery Facilitator Program and shall attach the Recommendations of Discovery Facilitator and Termination of Appointment of Discovery Facilitator as part of the exhibit. To the extent feasible, motions from parties who have completed the Discovery Facilitator process will receive calendar preference over other discovery motions. (8) If for any reason the Discovery Facilitator fails to serve the Recommendations of Discovery Facilitator and Termination of Appointment of Discovery Facilitator, the parties shall notify the ADR Coordinator at ADRdiscoveryfacilitator@contracosta.courts.ca.gov. The ADR Coordinator shall contact the Discovery Facilitator. If for any reason the ADR Coordinator is unable to obtain the Recommendations, the ADR Coordinator shall notify the parties and terminate participation in the Program. (9) The court will consider the Recommendations of the Discovery Facilitator in deciding the merits of the motion. The purpose of this Discovery Facilitator Program is to facilitate discovery and the resolution of discovery disputes without, or with minimal, court supervision, given current budgetary restraints on the court. (e) Urgent discovery motions (1) Parties participating in the Program may present an ex parte application to the Court to shorten all time frames set forth in this Rule upon a showing of good cause. (f) Compensation of Discovery Facilitators (1) Recognizing the importance of the principle of maintaining access to justice, and the fact that there is only a nominal fee for filing a Discovery Motion to be heard before a judicial officer, Discovery Facilitators shall serve without any monetary compensation. The parties to the discovery dispute are counseled to bear in mind that the Discovery Facilitators are donating their time and grant them the courtesy and respect the parties would grant to a judicial officer, and minimize the paperwork that they serve on the Discovery Facilitators. (2) If the parties choose to use the services of the Discovery Facilitator after completion of the assignment, compensation shall be pursuant to agreement of the Facilitator and the parties, which agreement should be confirmed in writing. (3) The policy of the Program is that a Discovery Facilitator will handle only one assignment per case without compensation. If there is more than one Request for Assignment of Discovery Facilitator in a case, the parties may use the Facilitator for the second assignment if an agreement is reached for compensation of the Facilitator. Otherwise, the second Request for Assignment of Discovery Facilitator will be assigned to a different Discovery Facilitator. (g) Forms used in Discovery Facilitator Program Stipulation to Participate in Discovery Facilitator Program and Toll Related Filing Deadlines Local Court Form ADR-602 Request for Assignment of Discovery Facilitator Local Court Form ADR-610 Notice of Assignment of Discovery Facilitator Local Court Form ADR-612 Finding of Non-Compliance Local Court Form ADR-614 Notice of Termination of Appointment of Discovery Facilitator Local Court Form ADR-615 Recommendations of Discovery Facilitator and Termination of Appointment of Discovery Facilitator Local Court Form ADR-616 Rejection of Assigned Discovery Facilitator Local Court Form ADR-617 Notice to Deponent and Deposition Officer of Assignment to Discovery Facilitator Program and Stay of Records Production Date Local Court Form ADR-618 (Rule 3.301 revised effective 1/1/25)
Chapter 7. Discovery Motions and the Optional Discovery Facilitator Program Rule 3.300. Optional Discovery Facilitator Program In an attempt to avoid protracted, costly and unnecessary discovery disputes, Civil and Probate Departments listed on the Court’s website provide the option for parties to participate in the Discovery Facilitator Program (“Program”) before filing motions in Court to compel
Reviewer note: Composed 2026-10-08 (California T4 Contra Costa build 2026-10-08) from BenchPath custody ca/t4/ca-contra-costa/docs/general/july-2026-local-rules-final_0.pdf (the court's rule book, “Local Rules of Court Effective July 1, 2026”, as fetched 2026-10-08; 24267831 bytes, sha256 580a7d67b663a29aea78edf6b7d0fffb19be65430ad0770cad9f8cb543be811e; 274 pages) with the shared verbatim composer (v2 reflow) over the rules (PDF pages 17 to 191): each page's running header (“Local Rules of the Superior Court of California, County of Contra Costa”) and footer (a rule of underscores, “Local Court Rules – Effective July 1, 2026” and “Page N of 201”) removed as chrome; lines reflowed into the rules' paragraphs; Title One's heading and its first chapter heading set on their own lines, eleven rule citations the reflow broke at a line end rejoined, and six tables printed without rules set one row a line - Rule 2.40's attorney fee schedule, two cells of Guideline Attachment 1's commission chart, Attachment 2's attorney rates, Attachment 3's time summary and Attachment 4(a)'s probate calendars (18 whitespace-only fixes); Rule 2.160's local fees and the commission chart's header cells and sixth row, which the reflow read across, set as printed (three same-character fixes); the sixth row's number, in page 180's bottom band, kept (the composer's bottom_band_numbers option); no struck character (the strike report); the rules cut at the chapter headings, which reassemble them (Title Six is “Reserved”: its heading alone); proof 1 (whitespace-only) and proof 2 (same character multiset as the text layer minus chrome) pass. The cover, the table of rule effective dates, the table of contents, the list of local court forms, the index and Appendix A (the standing orders as revised May 15, 2026, superseded by the compilation revised August 11, 2026) belong to no chapter.
3 verbatim requirements on motion calendar in JEREMY I. FRANKER's division.
4 verbatim requirements on motion calendar in STEPHANIE MATALON's division.