Department L54 MANDATORY SETTLEMENT CONFERENCE RULES FOR CASES WITH A TIME ESTIMATE OF ONE HOUR OR MORE Pursuant to Local Rule of the Superior Court of California, County of Orange, the parties and DCSS are ordered to meet (may be telephonic or video conference) arranged by the moving party in a good faith effort to eliminate the necessity of trial or to eliminate as many of the disputes between the parties as possible.

Not later than five (5) calendar days prior to the conference, or any other date set by the court, the parties must serve upon the other parties’ settlement conference/trial briefs, and fully executed income and expense declarations. Each party must also provide and exchange a proposed Guideline Calculation containing those factors each party believes to be true. Parties may utilize the public Guideline Calculator found at the following website: https://childsupport.ca.gov/guideline-calculator Parties must prepare a joint statement of issues remaining to be tried, defining and limiting the issues to be tried.

The joint statement of issues must be filed with the court at least court days prior to the status conference date, so that the court can adequately assess a trial date. The joint statement must be signed by each party participating in the settlement conference. Attendance at the conference is mandatory. Failure of the parties and their attorneys to attend may result in the imposition of sanctions. Sanctions may be imposed by the court, with appropriate notice, without the necessity of a request by an opposing party.