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The Family Division's procedures for long cause hearings and trials: meet-and-confer duties, time estimates, in-person appearance, pre-trial submissions (trial briefs, exhibit and witness lists), exhibits, witnesses and experts, and trial conduct.
California > Sixth Appellate District > Santa Clara County > Superior Court of California, County of Santa Clara
SANTA CLARA COUNTY SUPERIOR COURT FAMILY DIVISION LONG CAUSE HEARINGS AND TRIAL PROCEDURES Parties must comply with the California Rules of Court and the Santa Clara County Superior Court Local Rules of Court governing long cause hearings and trials. Nothing in these procedures is intended to supersede or conflict with existing Rules of Court or statutory authority. Parties must meet and confer before, and during, the hearing or trial to resolve or narrow disputed issues, and to streamline the presentation of evidence. Parties must discuss the expected testimony of each witness, and the admissibility of each proposed exhibit. Parties should specifically confer on their willingness to stipulate to the admission of expert witness hearsay statements pursuant to People v. Sanchez (2016) 63 Cal.4th 665.) Parties must notify the court promptly of any complete or partial settlement, revised time estimates, scheduling issues, or any other matters that may affect the hearing or trial. Failure to complete a trial within the time estimate may result in a mistrial. All participants (the parties, attorneys, and witnesses) must appear in person for trials and evidentiary hearings unless otherwise ordered by the court. I. Pre-Trial Submissions Represented parties must electronically file all trial materials. Self-represented parties may file trial materials either in hard copy with the clerk’s office or electronically. Required trial materials include: (1) trial briefs; (2) exhibit lists (not the actual exhibits); (3) witness lists; (4) objections to any proposed witnesses and exhibits; (5) a list of deposition transcripts that might be lodged; (6) stipulations; and (7) any in limine (pre-trial) motions and responses. Trial briefs must be filed, served, and then lodged with the trial department at least five court days before the trial. (Cal. R. Ct. 5.394.) In addition, parties must send their Exhibit List in Word format to the trial department. The email address for each family court department is DepartmentXX@scscourt.org, where XX is the department number. All parties and/or attorneys must be copied on all communications to the court. Any correspondence which does not include all parties will be deleted without review by the Department. Substantive discussions about the case or requests to manage any procedural aspect of the trial should not be sent to the department email. II. Exhibits Parties must provide trial exhibits to the other side at least five court days before trial or hearing. They must also meet and confer before the hearing to discuss exhibits, including stipulations for admissibility and objections, unless a protective order bars such communications. Email exchanges do not satisfy the requirement that the parties meet and confer prior to hearing. The requirement to meet and confer does not apply to domestic violence restraining order hearings or trials. All exhibits must be pre-marked. Petitioner’s exhibits should be numbered beginning with the number 1. Respondent’s exhibits should be lettered beginning with the letter A. Parties must also provide an exhibit list showing the document number or letter, its title, and a brief description of the document. Before 12:00 p.m. on the court day before trial, the parties or their attorneys must deliver trial exhibits to the courtroom. The court must have two copies of all exhibits from each party: one copy for the judicial officer and one for the courtroom clerk. Exhibits may be provided in binder form, or on a USB drive. If provided on a USB drive, each exhibit must be in a separate document and the document title must include the exhibit number/letter and a brief description. (i.e. “Ex A Pet IncomeExpenseDec”) Some judicial officers prefer digital exhibits instead of binders, please confirm at the time of trial setting. Digital exhibits such as audio or video files must be provided to the department via USB/flash drive. Each party is responsible for providing their own HDMI cables for connection to the courtroom video display system. Each party is responsible for providing their own witnesses their own exhibits as well as the exhibits received from the other party. Whether provided electronically or on paper, all exhibits are deemed “returned to the parties” at the conclusion of the trial and must be maintained by the parties until the time for filing a notice appeal has expired or, if a notice of appeal has been filed, until the appellate proceedings have concluded. If exhibits are not timely provided to the Court, opposing attorneys, and/or witnesses, the Court may bar use of any such exhibits. Parties wishing to use documents for impeachment or refreshing recollection should have the documents readily available. Exhibits in a language other than English must be translated and certified under oath. III. Interpreters Parties calling any witness needing an interpreter must complete Judicial Council form INT-300 at least 5 days in advance of the hearing. The court tries to provide an interpreter in every language in every civil case. The court will provide you with a response to notify you if your request was granted. IV. Court Reporters A party has the right to arrange, at the party’s own expense, for the services of a court reporter if the services of an official court reporter are not available. Please note that the Superior Court of California, County of Santa Clara, has issued a General Order authorizing the use of electronic recording (ER) equipment in specific court proceedings where fundamental liberty interests are at stake, and no court reporter is available. This action seeks to preserve litigants’ appellate rights and ensure equal access to justice amid a significant, long-standing shortage of court reporters. A copy of the General Order may be obtained here: November 14, 2024 General Order REMOTE PROCEEDINGS The following procedures apply to all remote proceedings in Family Court. Nothing in this document is intended to supersede existing, current local and state rules. For more detailed information regarding Remote Appearances, see Local Rules, General Court and Administration Rules, Rule 9, “Remote Proceedings” found here and Local Rules, Family Rules, Rule 1 (N), “Appearances” found here. If the court authorizes a remote appearance, the parties should comply with Section 7 of the Santa Clara County Bar Association Code of Professionalism “Using Technology in Legal Matters.”1 I. Remote Appearances If proceedings are conducted remotely, in whole or in part, minors must not observe or participate in the proceedings without permission from the court. Parties must not record or photograph the proceedings without a court order. Doing so is a violation of various statutes and rules and may be referred for prosecution. (See Pen. Code § 632, Cal. R. Ct. 1.150.) This prohibition includes the use of artificial intelligence applications. II. Remote Hearing Platform The court’s current remote hearing platform is Microsoft Teams. Information about downloading 1 Download the .pdf version of the Code here. and using Microsoft Teams is available on the court’s website. III. Requirements During Hearings Participants must test their video equipment prior to every appearance. Participants must be familiar with logging in, muting their microphone, and turning their video on and off. Participants must avoid using their computer’s built-in microphone. Instead, participants are expected to use a wired headset or a separate stand-alone microphone, preferably with noise cancellation abilities. If possible, participants should use a hard-wired internet connection, not a Wi-Fi connection, and should use a laptop or desktop computer instead of a phone. If a party’s internet connection is poor, the court reserves the right to continue the matter. All participants must enter their own first and last names on Microsoft Teams and their own name must appear in their video frame. Participants who do not use their own name will not be admitted into the Teams session. Participants must be muted whenever they are not speaking. They must avoid distractions and testify from a quiet location. Participants should speak slowly and clearly and pause between questions and answer. IV. Professionalism and Decorum Court proceedings must be formal and dignified, even when parties appear remotely. Parties must be respectful of the court, courtroom staff, and other parties. Do not interrupt. Dress appropriately. SAMPLE EXHIBIT LIST Proponent of Letter/Number Short Description Stipulated or Date Date Exhibit (Pet. Objection Marked Admitted vs. Resp.) (for Court (for Court use) use) January 31, 2025
SANTA CLARA COUNTY SUPERIOR COURT FAMILY DIVISION LONG CAUSE HEARINGS AND TRIAL PROCEDURES Parties must comply with the California Rules of Court and the Santa Clara County Superior Court Local Rules of Court governing long cause hearings and trials. Nothing in these procedures is intended to supersede or conflict with existing Rules of Court or statutory authority. Parties must meet and confer be
Reviewer note: Composed 2026-09-28 (California T3 Santa Clara build 2026-09-28) from BenchPath custody ca/t3/ca-santa-clara/divdocs/family-division-guidelines-trials-and-hearings.pdf (290495 bytes, sha256 5b7e415f2e6273b014c279c01480fbfcfafc2c1391375485c7cce3c9b2271ca6; 4 pages) with the shared verbatim composer: pleading line numbers, page numbers, running headers and 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) both pass. Spacing correction 2026-09-29: 1 space the print does not have removed (an invisible zero-width space an accessibility pass inserted, or a seam between two runs of type that touch: a superscript ordinal, a footnote number); whitespace only, the characters are unchanged.
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