Judge Christopher S. Morris

Cal. Form ADM-379

California Superior Local Rules

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 PAGE 1 OF 4 Judge Christopher S. Morris LONG CAUSE TRIAL RULES/HEARING ORDERS FOR DEPARTMENT 702 Trial: • Counsel, parties, and witnesses must appear in person for hearings in Dept. 702 unless the court has indicated otherwise. Anyone who wishes to appear via Microsoft Teams or have your witnesses appear via Microsoft Teams, may make the request directly with the court. Information regarding the MS Teams platform can be found on the San Diego Superior Court website.

The Court will not use Zoom or any other videoconferencing platform. • We will complete the trial/hearing in the number of days/hours you have set; have your witnesses ready and plan your presentation accordingly.

The Court has little flexibility to provide additional time. • If you cannot complete the trial in the time set, please request new dates at the pre-trial conference or you may come in ex parte to revise your time estimate or reset the trial date. • All else being equal, half the time will go to the moving party and half to the opposition. • Between now and the date of trial, counsel is encouraged to meet and confer and settle as many issues as possible, presenting a written stipulation at trial.

If your matter settles before trial, please inform this Department’s clerk immediately. • Unless otherwise noted, the first day of trial will start at 9:00 am. There will be a break in the morning and afternoon and proceedings will conclude each day at 4:30 p.m. • Trial Briefs and witness lists per Fam. Code 217, are to be filed and served 7 days prior to the hearing. Unless ordered otherwise, all In Limine Motions are due four days before trial and any Opposition to In Limine Motions are due 2 days before trial. Exhibits shall be delivered to Department 702 by 8:30am on the first day of trial.

However, any exhibits referenced in the respective pre-trial filings (trial briefs and/or Motions in Limine) shall be attached to those briefs. Trial briefs shall not exceed 15 pages without leave of court. • All of Petitioner’s exhibits should be pre-marked and tabbed as numbers in numerical order.

All of Respondent’s exhibits should be pre-marked and tabbed as letters in alphabetical order. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 PAGE 2 OF 4 If there are exhibits from Minor’s Counsel, Minor’s Counsel may use exhibits beginning with “AA-1, AA-2, etc.” Please take special care not to have duplicative exhibits.

Unless the exception shown below is applicable, an Exhibit which contains multiple pages, must have an identifying number (bate stamped). • Exhibits that can be considered as one exhibit and will not need each page to be bate stamped are: FCS Reports, Income and Expense Declarations, Letters, Photos (taken on the same date and time), Findings and Orders After Hearing, and Judgments. • When judicial notice is taken of a document/exhibit, it is NOT indicated “RECEIVED” on the exhibit tag.

If there are impeachment exhibits, they can be identified as “the next in order” and the clerk will mark and adhere the exhibit tag. • The exhibits are to be TABBED (side or bottom of exhibit) with exhibit number/letter (all binders) and TAGGED (Clerk’s copy only) with an exhibit sticker tag or likeness. The exhibit sticker tag/likeness is to be placed in the lower right-hand corner by way of an exhibit tag/likeness as long as it does not cover any part of the document. If there is no empty place to put it, place the sticker on the backside of the last page of that exhibit.

The exhibit sticker tag is to have the exhibit number, case number and department number pre-written as follows: Pink Yellow ***FAILURE TO SUBMIT THE EXHIBITS TABBED/TAGGED APPROPRIATELY, MAY RESULT IN THEIR RETURN TO HAVE THEM DONE CORRECTLY*** • Exhibit binders and lists are to be provided to the court. Three (3) copies are to be provided – for the court, the court clerk, and the witness.

To assist the clerk and for the benefit of all to ensure the exhibits are correctly identified and received, please be sure the exhibit list is formatted as follows: Ptnr’s Ex: 1, 2, 3 FL 123456C Rec’d Dept 702 Clk Resp’s Ex: A. B, C FL 123456C Rec’d Dept 702 Clk 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 PAGE 3 OF 4 Pet # Description ID’d Rec’d Resp # Description ID’d Rec’d 1 A 2 B 3 C • Exhibit binders/notebooks shall not exceed 1.5 inches.

The spine of the binder/notebook shall be labeled with the exhibits that are contained in that particular binder/notebook (example: Binder 1 – exhibits 1-50). • Parties are responsible for retrieving all of their exhibits at the end of trial unless otherwise approved by the court. Witness Testimony: All witnesses are to be in person unless approved otherwise. If your witness has been authorized to appear via videoconferencing, please ensure that each witness knows how to connect to Microsoft Teams and has a good connection prior to the hearing.

NOTE: All witnesses appearing remotely must have all exhibits available to them for easy reference during their testimony. Child testimony: • If you would like to call a child as a witness, please review California Rule of Court 5.250(d)(3). • Calling children to testify is not usually in their best interest, particularly when having to testify before their parents. Counsel should utilize other alternatives to present this information. Court Reporters: • Effective December 1, 2021, Official Court Reporters are not provided in Department 702.

The only exceptions are: ▪ There is a fee waiver on file and the party with the fee waiver has made a formal request for a Court Reporter using form ADM-379; ▪ Contempt Trials Delivering filings to court: • All pleadings, lodgments, trial briefs, witness lists, exhibit lists, and any other written material must be directly filed in Department 702.

Before making the delivery, please call 619-844- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 PAGE 4 OF 4 2072 to ensure that the clerk has not been reassigned to another department for the day and inform the clerk that you will have items delivered. Dated: _________________ ___________________________ Christopher S. Morris Judge of the Superior Court

Document details

Collection	California Superior Local Rules
Citation	Cal. Form ADM-379
Type	court_rule
Language	en
Format	pdf
Source	CA_LOCAL
Identifier	b50c636d0b51f351ae6ae71a34c4e1f8664a2653

Source file is stored in the law ingest library (pdf).