Judge: Mark H. Epstein, Case: 20SMCV01901, Date: 2023-03-06 Tentative Ruling

The Court generally uploads tentative rulings the morning of the hearing.  Because of that, the parties cannot submit on the tentative the night before and not appear.  However, if after reviewing the tentative ruling ALL COUNSEL submit, they should tell the Court's judicial assistant when checking in and the Court will endeavor to either not hear the case in light of the submission or, if the Court believes that a hearing is still needed for some other reason, then the Court will be inclined to give priority.

In some cases, tentative rulings may be given by email the morning of the hearing rather than on the tentative ruling site.  Please check your email if you have not seen the tentative.  The email is generally sent to the persons who have signed up for a remote hearing.

For those appearing in the courtroom, the Court will provide a hard copy of the tentative ruling. 

Case Number: 20SMCV01901    Hearing Date: March 6, 2023    Dept: R

The case is here for final status conference.  The parties had stated that they anticipated a 3 day jury trial.  However, given the FSC materials submitted, it might be that the parties are waiving jury.

The court is in receipt of the following FSC materials: (1) Joint Witness List (3 live witnesses for 6 hours and 3 via deposition); (2) Joint Exhibit List (35 exhibits, no objections); (3) Joint Deposition Chart.  If this is a jury trial, the court does not have jury instructions or a verdict form.  That said, the court suspects that this is not a jury trial, and thus those materials are not required.  The court has not received trial briefs, but for a one day trial, the court will assume that they can be filed at day’s end today, at which point the case will be ready for trial.

The court is currently engaged in another trial, and there is another short cause bench trial that will take precedence as well.  However, the court believes that it can fit this short case in.

If the case is ready for trial, the court will discuss when the case is likely to go—possibly later next week.  However, the same cannot necessarily be said if this is a jury trial.  And it might be that the case will have to await the court’s return late in the week of 3/20/23.