New Form for San Bernardino Initial Trial Setting Conferences

As you may know, the Superior Court of San Bernardino’s Civil Department has issued new and amended local rules in an effort to address the return to activity following the lengthy closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Part of these changes apply to a civil case’s Initial Trial Setting Conferences, which can be found in the Appendix I at Emergency Rule 1.  As set forth therein, the date of the Initial Trial Setting Conference will be set by the court clerk at the time of the filing of the initial complaint, for a date approximately 26 weeks out.  Instead of a Case Management Statement or an At-Issue Memorandum, the Court has created Local Form #13-09001-360 entitled the “Initial Trial Setting Conference Statement”, which is still due no later than 15 days before the conference.

No appearances will be made for the Conference “except for good cause shown”, and the judges will be conducting these in chambers.  Thereafter, parties should expect a Trial Setting Conference Minute Order to be issued and served by the Court.

Please be sure to review the updated rules for other nuances and variations to the standard practices.