Judge: Mark H. Epstein, Case: 22SMCV02612, Date: 2025-03-19 Tentative Ruling

Case Number: 22SMCV02612    Hearing Date: March 19, 2025    Dept: I

The court is troubled.  The FSC and trial dates were set on January 22, 2024—over a year ago.  At that time, the parties were circulating a CMO but not everyone had signed off on it.  The court advised the parties—strongly—that they ought to finalize one.  Yet there is still no CMO.  The court directed that mediation occur by 1/31/25, but no mediation occurred.  Discovery is not done.  The court appreciates that the matter is complicated, but there has been no showing of diligence here.  The problem is that the court has over 1200 cases on its docket; it does not have the ability to continue cases on request, and certainly not without a strong showing that the parties have been diligent.  The court will inquire further, but the parties need to know that “squeezing in” a 21 day jury trial is not likely.  Were the court to agree to continue the case, it would likely be restored to the calendar for trial in January 2027.  The court will, however, inquire as to whether this is likely to be a long cause trial, meaning 100 hours of direct and cross examination, as that could have some impact on the court’s thinking.