The court's policy and goal to encourage the parties in all civil cases to explore and pursue private dispute resolution by means of an Alternative Dispute Resolution process appropriate to the matter, at the earliest appropriate date (15.1).
California > First Appellate District > Sonoma County > Superior Court of California, County of Sonoma
RULE 15 RULES APPLICABLE TO ALTERNATIVE DISPUTE RESOLUTION (ADR) 15.1 POLICY STATEMENT The formal litigation of legal claims and disputes is expensive and time consuming. The overall results achieved by some, or all the parties are often unsatisfactory. There are many alternatives to formal court litigation which are less expensive, less time consuming, and more beneficial to the parties. It is therefore the firm policy and goal of this court to encourage the parties in all civil cases to explore and pursue private dispute resolution by means of an Alternative Dispute Resolution process that is appropriate to the matter and at the earliest appropriate date. (Eff. 1/1/1997; Rev. 1/1/2007, 1/1/2016, Renumbered 1/1/2023- formerly Rule 16) ____________________________________________________________________________________
RULE 15 RULES APPLICABLE TO ALTERNATIVE DISPUTE RESOLUTION (ADR) 15.1 POLICY STATEMENT The formal litigation of legal claims and disputes is expensive and time consuming. The overall results achieved by some, or all the parties are often unsatisfactory. There are many alternatives to formal court litigation which are less expensive, less time consuming, and more beneficial to the parties. It is th
Reviewer note: Composed 2026-10-08 (California T4 Sonoma build 2026-10-08) from BenchPath custody ca/t4/ca-sonoma/docs/local-rules/local-rules-working-jul-2026-new-address-update.pdf (the court's rule book, “Local Rules of Court Effective July 1, 2026”, as fetched 2026-10-08; 1515969 bytes, sha256 e3a9b3a99af553adf4c33851ccbc58bbbfb1020ec74e105c1225b9e6d076c102; 204 pages) with the shared verbatim composer (v2 reflow) over Rules 1 to 21 (PDF pages 8 to 189), each rule composed alone from its first page to the page before the next rule's: each page's running header (“SUPERIOR COURT OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SONOMA”, two rules of underscores and the page number) removed as chrome; lines reflowed into the rules' paragraphs; eight breaks the reflow made before a citation or history note's “Rule N.N” at a line start rejoined and eleven paragraph, heading, history and list-line breaks it ran together set back (19 whitespace-only fixes, build/book-fixes.json; the vertical-gap audit finds no joined break left); four struck characters (tracked deletions on PDF pages 70, 98, 176 and 184; the strike report) left out; proof 1 (whitespace-only) and proof 2 (same character multiset as the text layer minus chrome) pass. The cover, the list of the court's judicial officers, the table of contents, the index, the forms listings and the list of currently effective rules belong to no rule.
Division XI: information forms for data processing (Rule 11.2); required action - action taken on all calendared cases and a future date always set (Rule 11.19); and pro tem judges - an attorney named as a plaintiff in a civil or small claims case may not sit as a judge pro-tem during the case or within six months following its resolution, nor one named as a defendant in two or more such cases (Rule 11.22). Rules 11.1, 11.3 to 11.5, 11.7 to 11.18, 11.20 and 11.21 are repealed, and Rule 11.6 (voluntary arbitration; see Local Rule 10.2) was repealed and renumbered.
Duval County's indigent-defense and magistration rules under the Texas Fair Defense Act (S.B. 7): who may be booked into the county jail and on what paper; arrest-case numbering; presentment to a magistrate within 48 hours (art. 15.16); the magistrate's warnings, counsel inquiry, interpreter duty, indigence determination and appointment of counsel within 24 hours of a request; the alternative appointment plan under art. 26.04(g)-(h) with annual applications, seven attorney categories (capital, first and second degree, third degree/state jail/misdemeanor, competency, appeals, post-conviction, extradition), CLE and experience standards, random rotation within each category, written acceptance within 48 hours, first contact by the end of the next working day, replacement and suspension of counsel, fee applications within five days of completing services and the compensation attachment ($500 pleas; $175/$150 hourly; $1,400 per jury-trial day; appellate caps); bail schedules by offense class with a personal bond office (fee $20 or 3%), pre-trial supervision and revocation hearings within two working days; arraignment settings and notice; repeal of conflicting rules.