San Mateo County Superior Court — Small Claims Hearings: In… — CA · BenchPath

San Mateo County Superior Court — Small Claims Hearings: In Person Appearance Protocol

High confidence· verified October 8, 2026Trial ExhibitsSmall Claims Hearings: In Person Appearance Protocol, Superior Court of California, County of San Mateo; posted on the court's Small Claims Division page (https://sanmateo.courts.ca.gov/divisions/small-claims-division) at https://sanmateo.courts.ca.gov/system/files/small-claims/person-appearance-protocol.pdf, fetched 2026-10-08.

Summary

Check the courtroom location with the Small Claims clerk two days before the hearing (option 6); bring all exhibits to the hearing and exchange documents and evidence with the other parties before entering the courtroom (no exhibits mailed in or submitted electronically); the Zoom Appearance Protocol applies when either party is approved to appear by Zoom.

Applies to

California > First Appellate District > San Mateo County > Superior Court of California, County of San Mateo

Requirement

SMALL CLAIMS HEARINGS In Person Appearance Protocol Please check with the Small Claims clerk at 650-261-5100, option 6, two days prior to your hearing for the courtroom location You must bring all exhibits with you on the day of your Court Hearing Prior to entering the Courtroom, you will be asked to exchange any documents and evidence with the other parties on your case. Anything submitted to the Court as an exhibit must be shown to all parties in the case. There can be no surprises in Small Claims Court. Do not mail in or electronically submit exhibits to the Court. Note: If either party is approved to appear by Zoom, please click here for the Zoom Appearance Protocol, which includes exhibit exchange instructions. This protocol is to be followed by all parties when one or both are appearing by Zoom.

Source of truth

SMALL CLAIMS HEARINGS In Person Appearance Protocol Please check with the Small Claims clerk at 650-261-5100, option 6, two days prior to your hearing for the courtroom location You must bring all exhibits with you on the day of your Court Hearing Prior to entering the Courtroom, you will be asked to exchange any documents and evidence with the other parties on your case. Anything submitted to the

Official source: Superior Court of California, County of San Mateo — court website
Source health: Healthy · checked September 28, 2026
Effective date: —
Last verified: October 8, 2026benchpath-ca-t4-san-mateo-2026-10-08

Reviewer note: Composed 2026-10-08 (California T4 San Mateo build 2026-10-08) from BenchPath custody ca/t4/ca-san-mateo/docs/small-claims/person-appearance-protocol.pdf (92086 bytes, sha256 7a525f63263651bf8db5883e41cd369573d2defadb3f925eb2c1cda5a7131604; 1 page) with the shared verbatim composer (v2 reflow): page marks and running headers or footers removed as chrome; lines reflowed into the document's paragraphs; proof 1 (whitespace-only) and proof 2 (same character multiset as the text layer minus chrome) pass.