Background

The Sacramento Superior Court began its current Civil Settlement Conference Program in 1986 with a commitment from the bench that strong efforts to settle civil cases were essential to good trial calendar management. To support the program, the Court solicited Sacramento's leading civil attorneys, asking them to sit as Pro Tem Settlement Conference Judges, pro bono. Over the years, the program has become one of the Court's most effective forms of alternative dispute resolution, resulting in the settlement of approximately 50% of the cases that complete their conferences. The Civil Settlement Conference Center is located at the Hall of Justice Building, 813 6^th Street, 1^st Floor, Sacramento, CA 95814.

The information below is designed to provide a quick overview of the Settlement Conference process. Parties should review Chapter 2 - Part Seven of the Court's Local Rules for a full description of the requirements for conference participants.

Conference Scheduling

Mandatory Settlement Conferences are set during the Trial Setting Process. These conferences are scheduled approximately 30 days prior to trial and are set Monday through Thursday, at either 9:30 a.m. or 1:30 p.m.

Parties may also agree to a Voluntary Settlement Conference. All rules that apply to Mandatory Settlement Conferences apply to voluntary conferences. Requests for a voluntary conference should be made to the Settlement Conference Clerk using the Voluntary Settlement Request Form and emailed to dept59@saccourt.ca.gov.

Settlement Conference Statement

The Settlement Conference Statement assists the voluntary Pro Tem Settlement Conference Judges and the Supervising Settlement Conference Judge to understand the details of the case prior to the conference.

Not less than ten days prior to the conference, each party must submit their Settlement Conference Statement to the Settlement Conference Clerk. The Settlement Conference may be dropped from the Court’s calendar for failure to submit a Settlement Conference Statement 10 days prior to the hearing. The Settlement Conference Statement is to be submitted by email as a PDF attachment to dept59@saccourt.ca.gov. If unable to email, an original and one (1) copy may be submitted by mail to 720 9th Street, Sacramento, CA 95814 or via the drop box located on the second floor at 813 6^th Street, Sacramento, CA 95814. Settlement Conference statements shall not be submitted through e-Filing.

The Court will not accept Notice of Remote Appearance (RA-010), Requests to Appear Remotely in letter format, or Requests to Continue or Vacate Mandatory Settlement Conference through e-Filing. Such requests are to be submitted in writing to dept59@saccourt.ca.gov.

Note: The Settlement Conference Statement does not become a part of the permanent record. The document will be received, but not filed.

Attendance

Settlement conferences will be conducted in-person with the option of appearing via the videoconferencing application Zoom. The parties shall meet and confer at least seven (7) days prior to the scheduled conference. Parties that elect to appear via Zoom must notify the department at dept59@saccourt.ca.gov no less than seven (7) court days prior to the scheduled conference. The Settlement Conference Clerk will email the Zoom link to all parties and counsel the week prior to your scheduled settlement conference. All persons whose consent is required to effect a binding settlement shall be present at the settlement conference unless they have been excused from attendance by the Supervising Settlement Judge. A request for excuse must be made no less than seven (7) court days prior to the scheduled conference, and should include the response of all other parties to the request.

Any person who has been excused from attendance must remain immediately available by telephone throughout the conference.

Continuing a Settlement Conference

Motions to continue a settlement conference in conjunction with trial date are heard by the Presiding Judge in Department 47.

Parties may change the date and time of a settlement conference. All parties must select and agree on a date Monday through Thursday, at either 9:30 a.m. or 1:30 p.m. The conference date must be at least one (1) week prior to the currently scheduled trial date. Once agreed, parties should email the Settlement Conference Clerk at dept59@saccourt.ca.gov to confirm the availability of the selected date and time.

Voluntary Settlement Conference (VSC)

Voluntary settlement conferences will be conducted Fridays starting at 9:00 a.m. VSC’s are, by definition, voluntary, so ALL parties must agree to participate in the program for any case to be assigned a VSC date.