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On a party's request or the court's motion, a civil case may be sent to an early mandatory settlement conference before trial, conducted by experienced settlement attorneys (California Rules of Court, rule 2.812); the parties choose a settlement attorney from the court's list within 10 days and file a five-page statement five court days before the conference; the pre-trial MSC under Local Civil Rule 9 still proceeds.
California > Sixth Appellate District > Santa Clara County > Superior Court of California, County of Santa Clara
SUPERIOR COURT OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA IN AND FOR THE COUNTY OF SANTA CLARA ORDER REGARDING EARLY CIVIL MANDATORY SETTLEMENT CONFERENCES This Court HEREBY FINDS AND ORDERS AS FOLLOWS: 1. Since March 4, 2020, the State of California has been in a State of Emergency as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Governor and the County of Santa Clara Public Health Officer have issued several orders to help combat the spread of the virus, including orders to shelter in place, maintain social distancing, and restrict operation of essential businesses. 2. The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly altered the way the Court does business. Although the Court was open to provide access to justice for our County’s citizens in a safe and socially distanced manner from the first day the County’s first shelter in place order was effective, the Court was forced to continue Civil trials for a period of several months in 2020. 3. Additionally, due to fiscal effects of the pandemic, and resulting budget cuts, the Court has a reduced staff, including in the number of available courtroom clerks necessary to conduct trials, which limits the number of courtrooms available for Civil trials, and requires that the Civil courtrooms remain mostly closed on Fridays. 4. Likewise, to safely hold trials at the Downtown Superior and Old Courthouse, protective measures such as Plexiglas barriers were required to be installed, which further delayed conducting trials. 5. In order to protect potential jurors, a new jury selection process and other protective measures have been implemented, including maximum occupancy limitations, which constrain the number of Civil jury trials the Court can safely conduct each week. 6. California Rules of Court, Rule 3.1380 clearly states that upon the Court’s own motion or at the request of any party, the Court may set one or more mandatory settlement conferences. 7. In order to resolve cases for which trials have been delayed due to the pandemic, and to comply with the Court’s duties under the Trial Delay Reduction Act, the Court finds that it is in the best interest of the Court, and its attorneys and litigants, to expand the Court’s mandatory settlement conference program beyond that contemplated under Local Civil Rule 9A. 8. The Court therefore hereby orders that: a. Upon request of a party, or the Court’s own motion, a case may be sent to a mandatory settlement conference prior to trial. Should the case not settle at this early mandatory settlement conference, the mandatory settlement conference the week before trial will still proceed, pursuant to Local Civil Rule 9. b. These mandatory settlement conferences will be conducted by experienced settlement attorneys pursuant to California Rule of Court 2.812(3)(D), and will not be performing a judicial function requiring use of a certified temporary judge. c. The list of settlement attorneys available to conduct a mandatory settlement conference pursuant to this order will be posted on the Court’s website at https://www.scscourt.org/court_divisions/civil/adr/civil_msc_attorneys.shtml. Within 10 days of being ordered to a mandatory settlement conference under this order, the parties must choose a settlement attorney and schedule their mandatory settlement conference directly with the settlement attorney. These mandatory settlement conferences will be held remotely. d. The parties must file their five page (not including any attachments) mandatory settlement conference statement with the Court, and email it to the settlement attorney and all parties or their counsel to the case, five court days prior to their mandatory settlement conference. THIS ORDER IS EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY. Dated: March 2, 2021 Presiding Judge Theodore C. Zayner Santa Clara County Superior Court ORDER REGARDING EARLY CIVIL MANDATORY SETTLEMENT CONFERENCES
SUPERIOR COURT OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA IN AND FOR THE COUNTY OF SANTA CLARA ORDER REGARDING EARLY CIVIL MANDATORY SETTLEMENT CONFERENCES This Court HEREBY FINDS AND ORDERS AS FOLLOWS: 1. Since March 4, 2020, the State of California has been in a State of Emergency as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Governor and the County of Santa Clara Public Health Officer have issued several orders to
Reviewer note: Composed 2026-09-28 (California T3 Santa Clara build 2026-09-28) from BenchPath custody ca/t3/ca-santa-clara/divdocs/order-re-early-civil-msc-program_0.pdf (124707 bytes, sha256 e8bacf3cb286e1fa20729ae1d5dc69f962b583a690f556837eb090e45cdd898c; 3 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) pass after one documented correction: page 1 carries an overprinted duplicate text object (“19 pandemic has significantly altered the way the Court does business.”) on the line of paragraph 2, which prints once; the duplicate is removed, and proof 2 holds with that span subtracted from the text layer. The court's Civil ADR page presents the program as current (“you may be ordered by your judge to participate in this program”).
9 verbatim requirements from 4th Circuit Administrative Order 1997-10.
6 verbatim requirements from 4th Circuit Administrative Order 1997-13.