Standing Order in Civil Actions

=== Standing Order in Civil Actions === 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA NO. Plaintiff, STANDING ORDER IN CIVIL CASES v. Defendant. 17 I. LAW AND MOTION 18 A. Calendar 19 The civil law and motion calendar for District Judge Drozd is held on the first and third Monday 20 of every month commencing at 1:30 p.m., with hearings held by Zoom only. Parties will receive a 21 Zoom ID number and password for the hearing by email from Judge Drozd’s Courtroom Deputy 22 Pete Buzo ([email protected]). Any other interested parties or members of the public may 23 access the hearing telephonically by dialing 1-669-254-5252, using Meeting ID 161 413 4031 and 24 Passcode 125984, at the time of the hearing.

Because several matters may be set for hearing on the 25 same afternoon, the parties will be notified in advance of the hearing at what specific time the court 26 anticipates calling their case so they can join the Zoom at that time. 27 All motions shall be noticed for hearing. It is not necessary to clear a date prior to scheduling 28 a civil law and motion matter for hearing. The parties may indicate in their papers if they wish to 1 submit any motion for decision without oral argument.

The court may elect to submit any motion for 2 decision without oral argument, taking the matter under submission pursuant to Local Rule 230(g), 3 and will so advise the parties by minute order in advance of any noticed hearing date. The parties 4 are required to comply with Local Rule 230, or other applicable rules and notice requirements with 5 respect to motions. 6 B. Briefing 7 All briefs must be submitted using Times New Roman font of no less than 12pt size. Footnotes 8 must be no more than one size smaller than the text size.

9 Unless prior leave of court is obtained, all moving and opposition briefs or legal memorandum 10 in civil cases shall not exceed 25 pages. Reply briefs filed by moving parties shall not exceed 15 pages. 11 Only for good cause shown will the court grant an application to extend these page limitations. Briefs 12 that exceed the page limitations or are sought to be filed without leave of court may not be considered.

13 Finally, no supplemental briefs shall be filed without prior leave of court. 14 C. Meet and Confer Requirement 15 Prior to filing a motion in a case in which the parties are represented by counsel, counsel shall 16 engage in a pre-filing meet and confer to discuss thoroughly the substance of the contemplated motion 17 and any potential resolution. Counsel should resolve minor procedural or other non-substantive matters 18 during the meet and confer process so that briefing on motions that proceed to hearing is directed only 19 to those substantive issues requiring resolution by the court. A notice of motion shall contain a 20 certification by counsel filing the motion that meet and confer efforts have been exhausted, 21 with a very brief summary of meet and confer efforts.

22 D. Tentative Rulings 23 Judge Drozd does not issue tentative rulings. 24 E. Proposed Orders 25 The parties are not required to submit proposed orders with civil motions set for hearing before 26 Judge Drozd, with the exception that proposed orders shall be submitted with motions for a temporary 27 restraining order and motions for a preliminary injunction. In addition, parties shall provide proposed 28 consent decrees where applicable, and proposed findings of fact and conclusions of law following 1 a bench trial. Any such required proposed order shall be submitted in compliance with Local Rule 2 137(b) and emailed in Microsoft Word format to [email protected].

3 F. Courtesy Copies 4 Parties are directed not to send any courtesy copies unless specifically directed to do so by the court. 5 G. TROs and Injunctions 6 Parties seeking emergency or provisional relief shall comply with Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 7 65 and Local Rule 231. The court typically will not rule on any application for such relief for at least 8 twenty-four (24) hours after the party subject to the requested order has been served; such party may 9 file opposing or responding papers in the interim. The parties shall lodge a courtesy copy with chambers 10 of all papers relating to proposed TROs and injunctions, conformed to reflect that they have been filed.

11 II. TRANSCRIPTS 12 If you wish to order a transcript, please contact the Court Reporter who covered the hearing or 13 trial directly. Contact information for individual court reporters can be found on the U.S. District Court 14 for the Eastern District of California’s website.

15 III.

EX PARTE APPLICATIONS 16 Ex parte applications typically are not heard but are submitted by the court unless otherwise 17 notified. The filer is required to contact the courtroom deputy and the opposing party prior to the filing 18 of the ex parte application in order to advise that such request is being made. In addition, the 19 document(s) must indicate whether or not an opposition will be filed. The filer shall include an affidavit 20 indicating a satisfactory explanation for the following: (1) the need for the issuance of such an order, 21 (2) the inability of the filer to obtain a stipulation for the issuance of such an order from other counsel 22 or parties in the action, and (3) why such request cannot be noticed on the court’s motion calendar as 23 provided by Local Rule 230.

24 IV. MOTIONS FOR ADMINISTRATIVE RELIEF 25 The parties are required to comply with Local Rule 233 when filing miscellaneous administrative 26 matters. As stated in that rule, such matters may include “motions to exceed applicable page limitations; 27 requests to shorten time on a motion; requests to extend a response deadline; requests to alter a briefing 28 schedule; or requests to alter a discovery schedule that does not affect dispositive motion filing dates, 1 trial dates, or the final pre-trial conference.” See L.R. 233. Parties shall comply will all procedural 2 requirements set forth in Local Rule 233, including that a motion for administrative relief be accompanied 3 by a proposed order.

L.R. 233(a). 4 V. SEALING, REDACTING, AND PROTECTIVE ORDERS 5 No document will be sealed, nor shall a redacted be filed, without the prior approval of the court. 6 If a document for which sealing or redaction is sought relates to the record on a motion to be decided by 7 Judge Drozd, the request to seal or redact should be directed to him and not the assigned Magistrate 8 Judge. All requests to seal or redact shall be governed by Local Rules 141 (sealing) and 140 (redaction).

9 Protective orders covering the discovery phase shall not govern the filing of sealed or 10 redacted documents on the public docket. The court will only consider requests to seal or 11 redact filed by the proponent of sealing or redaction. If a party plans to make a filing that includes 12 material an opposing party has identified as confidential and potentially subject to sealing or redacting, 13 the filing party shall provide the opposing party with sufficient notice in advance of filing to allow for the 14 seeking of an order of sealing or redaction from the court. 15 Pursuant to Local Rule 141, a Notice of Request to Seal Document(s) must be filed electronically.

16 The Request to Seal, a proposed sealing order (in Word), and all documents covered by the request 17 must be emailed to [email protected]. If the request is approved and notice of electronic 18 filing of the sealing order is received, all documents covered by the order must be emailed to 19 [email protected] for filing under seal. 20 VI. ELECTRONIC FILING 21 The United States District Court for the Eastern District of California requires electronic filing 22 of documents in all new and pending civil cases in which parties are represented by counsel.

A party 23 proceeding without counsel may request authorization to file electronically. Information about the court’s 24 Electronic Case Filing system (“ECF”) is available on the court’s website at 25 www.caed.uscourts.gov/cmecf. See also Local Rule 133.

26 ///// 27 ///// 28 ///// 1 VII.

TRIAL 2 A. Pretrial Statements and Final Pretrial Conference 3 In those cases in which Judge Drozd is conducting the Final Pretrial Conference, the parties are 4 required to submit a Joint Pretrial Statement pursuant to Local Rule 281. The parties’ Joint Pretrial 5 Statement must be filed seven days before the date set for the Final Pretrial Conference and must also 6 be e-mailed as a Word document to: [email protected]. Separate pretrial statements 7 are not permitted unless a party is not represented by counsel. 8 The Joint Pretrial statement must cover all topics detailed in Local Rule 281 with the following 9 clarifications: 10 i. the parties must include a neutral joint statement of case; 11 ii. all duplicative or overlapping exhibits between parties must be listed as joint exhibits on a separate joint exhibit list, identified 12 as JX−1, JX−2, etc. 13 iii. plaintiff’s exhibits shall be listed numerically, and defendant’s exhibits shall be listed alphabetically; 14 iv. all exhibits must be identified with a reasonable amount of detail 15 (e.g., date, Bates-stamp number, description, estimated page length) so that there is no confusion as to what exhibit is 16 identified; 17 v. all remaining issues (e.g., claims, affirmative defenses, forms of relief) asserted in the action must be stated under the points of 18 law section or identified as an abandoned issue; and 19 vi. motions in limine listed should be limited to those which the parties reasonably anticipate filing.

20 The parties shall not file motions in limine prior to the pretrial conference. Following the pretrial 21 conference, the court will issue a pretrial order that will set dates for the filing of motions in limine, the 22 submission of exhibits, and other trial-related documents/deadlines. 23 B. Trial Schedule and Courtroom 24 Trials will be conducted in Courtroom 4 on the 15th floor. Trials will begin on Tuesdays at 25 9:00 a.m. Trials will be held on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays.

26 To bring large physical items, demonstrative exhibits, or electronic equipment, etc., to the 27 courtroom, counsel must make arrangements with the Courtroom Deputy, who will contact Court 28 Security for clearance to enter the building with the items. 1 Conference rooms are available on either side of the courtroom (out in the hallway) for use 2 during trial. 3 C. Audio and Video Equipment 4 The Courtroom has a variety of audio/visual equipment available to use for trial purposes. 5 Available equipment includes: ELMOs, projectors, plasma screens, microphones, assisted listening 6 devices and laptop connections.

Attorneys should arrange through the Courtroom Deputy a time to 7 meet with court Information Technology staff for training on electronic equipment prior to trial.

8 VII.

NOTICE OF THIS ORDER 9 Counsel for plaintiff shall immediately serve this order on all parties, including any new parties 10 added to the action in the future, unless this case came to the court by noticed removal, in which case 11 defendant shall serve this order on all other parties. 12 DATED: DALE A. DROZD U.S. DISTRICT COURT JUDGE 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28