Legal Question in Business Law in California

Re: Trial

It differs. Some courts assign trial dates sua sponte, and in others the attorneys must apply to the court for a trial date.

Re: Trial

You get a trial date from the court as a result of following all the rules, filing all the papers, conducting a CMC hearing, and picking trial and MSC dates in coordination with the court and opposing counsel. Not knowing that indicates you should be hiring an attorney to avoid making mistakes that will damage your case. If this is in SoCal and you're serious about doing so, feel free to contact me.

Re: Trial

You get a trial date from the court as a result of following all the rules, filing all the papers, conducting a CMC hearing, and picking trial and MSC dates in coordination with the court and opposing counsel. Not knowing that indicates you should be hiring an attorney to avoid making mistakes that will damage your case, like not knowing how to conduct the trial in compliance and Court Rules . If this is in SoCal and you're serious about doing so, feel free to contact me.

Re: Trial

From the day a case is filed in any California court, one or another court-supervised mechanism kicks in by which the judges manage it and push it along to trial.

The federal system is a single-judge assignment system and so the case will be handled start-to-finish by the assigned judge (or a single magistrate if appropriate in less complex cases). The judge will use periodic status conferences, as prescribed by the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, to keep the case moving. In spite of this, it will typically take at least a year before a case gets assigned to trial.

The state system runs under a master calendar system. There, multiple judges sitting in specialized capacities will handle various aspects of the case as it moves along to trial. The mechanism for moving the case to trial is a Case Management System (CMC). Early CMCs in a case will be held to make sure all parties have been served and eventually to direct the case to some form of alternative dispute resolution or ADR (either non-binding arbitration or mediation). If the case doesn't settle along the way, it is normally assigned to trial immediately after its return from ADR (in some cases, ADR is skipped). At that point it is assigned for trial, which can be with any judge among the trial judges who might be available on the schedule.

In all cases, a case must first be "at issue" (meaning all complaints/cross-complaints have been formally answered, with the triable issues thereby being framed), all parties served and having made formal appearances (with their pleadings at issue), and a reasonable opportunity for discovery having passed.

The short answer is yes, the court will impose checkpoints to make sure the case keeps moving toward trial.

That is the general process - check with a lawyer for the particulars of your situation.

Re: Trial

By and large, the court determines when a case will go to trial based on a combination of factors. The two primary factors are the Trial Delay Reduction Act ("Fast Track") criteria that establish goals for time to dispose of civil cases. The other factor is the court's calendar.

Civil cases subject to Fast Track case management are supposed to be resolved according to the following schedule:

For unlimited civil cases (amount in controversy greater than $25K) 75% are to be disposed of within 12 months, 85% within 18 months, and 100% within 24 months from the date of filing the complaint, respectively.

For limited civil cases (amount in controversy not greater than $25K) the goals are 90% within 12 months, 98% within 18 months, and 100% within 24 months.

Each judge is supposed to manages his or her court calendar consistent with those time frames. The actual trial date is often chosen by the judge at an Initial or Further Status Conference held with the attorneys. Although there is some give and take around everyone's schedule, the court almost always picks the date. If an attorney requests a particular date consistent with the disposition goals and the other party raises no objection, a court might agree, but only if its calendar allows.

Trial dates given by the court are supposed to be firm dates, with continuances granted only for specified reasons.

As you would presume, there are exceptions for every rule, but that's the general scheme. Hope this gives you what you need.

Regards,

Tom Newton

Re: Trial

I agree with all the prior answers, except that I feel Mr. Grellas is only partly right, in that not all California courts use the master calendar concept these days. A large and I think growing number use something closer to the Federal system.

As a general guide to an in pro. per. party, I would suggest the following:

(1) assume that the Court's trial calendar is busy, and that it's tough to find a nearby open date; (2) assume that your case must be "at issue" with all parties served and having answered, and that there has been time for one or more Case Management Conferences, for some effort to refer the case to ADR (alternative dispute resolution, such as mediation, arbitration, etc.), and for discovery to be completed, or nearly so.

I've had cases in about 15 different counties all over the state in the last few years, and my experience with the trial-setting urgency of judges is highly variable. Some want trial in seven or eight months of filing when possible, to improve their overall case-disposition speed average. Others allow cases to drag on endlessly without mentioning trial to the parties, perhaps hoping the litigants will settle out of court, lose interest, or die of old age.

In one case, I've had to petition via noticed motion to get on the trial calendar. In others, I've had to ask for repeated continuances.

I know other lawyers are telling you, "If you don't have this under control, hire me!" Maybe you should. If you don't, keep in mind that one of the judge's duties is to work with the parties to prevent undue delay and procure justice at an early time. At your next appearance before the judge, be sure to ask politely when he or she will set this case for trial and explain your preferences (earlier or later) and why. Also, review yours and the opponent's Case Management Statements for their answers as to when the case will be ready for trial.