Judge: Elaine Lu, Case: 22STCV27553, Date: 2023-09-29 Tentative Ruling
1. If you wish to submit on the tentative ruling,
please email the clerk at SMCdept26@lacourt.org (and “cc” all
other parties in the same email) no later than 7:30 am on
the day of the hearing, and please notify all other parties in advance that you
will not be appearing at the hearing. Include the word "SUBMISSION" in all caps in the
subject line and include your name, contact information, the case number, and
the party you represent in the body of the email. If you submit on the
tentative and elect not to appear at the hearing, the opposing party may
nevertheless appear at the hearing and argue the motion, and the Court may
decide not to adopt the tentative ruling.
2.
For any motion where no parties submit to the tentative ruling in
advance, and no parties appear at the motion hearing, the Court may elect to
either adopt the tentative ruling or take the motion off calendar, in its
discretion.
3. PLEASE DO NOT USE THIS
EMAIL (SMCdept26@lacourt.org) FOR ANY PURPOSE OTHER THAN TO SUBMIT TO A TENTATIVE
RULING. The Court will not read or
respond to emails sent to this address for any other purpose.
4. IN ORDER TO IMPLEMENT
PHYSICAL DISTANCING GOING FORWARD AND UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE, THE COURT STRONGLY
ENCOURAGES ALL COUNSEL AND ALL PARTIES TO APPEAR TELEPHONICALLY FOR NON-TRIAL
AND NON-EVIDENTIARY MATTERS. Thus, until further
notice, Department 26 strongly encourages telephonic appearances for motion
hearings that do not require the presentation of live testimony.
Case Number: 22STCV27553 Hearing Date: October 25, 2023 Dept: 26
The Court is inclined to grant Plaintiffs' ex parte applicaiton to continue the trial. However, the Court notes that Plaintiffs in this action have reserved multiple hearing dates on the online Court Reservation System (CRS) for motions to compel further discovery responses to be heard on February 7, 2024, February 8, 2024, and February 15, 2024. To date, moving papers have not been filed for some of the hearings reserved on CRS. The parties’ reservation of unused hearing dates is exacerbating the congestion of the Court’s motion calendar.
While waiting for the ex parte application to be called, the parties are ordered to meet and confer to attempt to resolve all pending discovery disputes.
If the parties do not result all discovery disputes between them, the moving party should be prepared to address why this Court should not cancel unused CRS reservations within 10 days to make it possible for litigants in other actions to schedule hearings for their motions.