Judge: Lee S. Arian, Case: 23STCV12892, Date: 2025-04-22 Tentative Ruling

Case Number: 23STCV12892    Hearing Date: April 23, 2025    Dept: 27

SUPERIOR COURT OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

FOR THE COUNTY OF LOS ANGELES - CENTRAL DISTRICT

Plaintiff filed this case on June 5, 2023. Trial is currently set for June 2, 2025. Defendant City of Los Angeles, with Plaintiffs’ stipulation, filed a Notice of Stipulated Motion and Stipulated Motion to continue the trial, discovery deadlines, and expert deadlines by approximately four months, requesting a new trial date in or after October 2025.

The basis for the continuance is that the parties have scheduled a private mediation with Hon. Patricia Schnegg on June 30, 2025, which falls after the currently scheduled trial date. The parties also seek additional time to complete Plaintiff’s independent medical examination (IME) and obtain expert reports in preparation for mediation and trial.

Under California Rules of Court, rule 3.714, cases of this nature should be resolved within two years. By June 2025, this case will reach that threshold. Accordingly, the Court is reluctant to grant a longer continuance than necessary and finds it appropriate to extend the trial date only to a date shortly after mediation. (In fact, the parties should have scheduled mediation before the trial date, which, pursuant to the CCP, are intended to be firm.)  Furthermore, because the IMEs are expected to take place before the scheduled mediation, they do not justify extending the trial date beyond the mediation date.

The new trial date is set for July 30, 2025, at 8:30 a.m. The Final Status Conference is continued to July 16, 2025, at 10:00 a.m.  All case-related deadlines will follow the new trial date.

Parties who intend to submit on this tentative must send an email to the Court at SSCDEPT27@lacourt.org indicating intention to submit on the tentative as directed by the instructions provided on the court’s website at www.lacourt.org.  Please be advised that 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 matter.  Unless you receive a submission from all other parties in the matter, you should assume that others might appear at the hearing to argue.  If the Court does not receive emails from the parties indicating submission on this tentative ruling and there are no appearances at the hearing, the Court may, at its discretion, adopt the tentative as the final order or place the motion off calendar.