UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA, SAN FRANCISCO DIVISION
CIVIL STANDING ORDER FOR
MAGISTRATE JUDGE ALEX G. TSE
I. CONFORMITY WITH RULES
Parties must follow the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and the Northern District of
California’s local rules and general orders, except as superseded by this standing order.
Failure to comply with these rules and orders may be grounds for monetary sanctions,
dismissal, entry of judgment, or other appropriate sanctions. Parties are also encouraged
to comply with the Northern District of California’s guidelines for professional conduct. 1
II. HEARINGS
A. Dates and Times
Motions are heard on Fridays at 10:00 a.m. If more than one motion is set for a given
Friday, the Court may—but will not always—assign separate times for each motion (e.g.,
motion one will be heard at 10:00 a.m., motion two will be heard at 10:30 a.m.). These
assignments sometimes will not be made until the day before the hearings, so parties
should check ECF or the Court’s calendar to determine if separate times have been
assigned. Unless a motion is specially set, the Court will not schedule a hearing before
10:00 a.m. The parties may not specially set any matter without leave of the Court.
During the months when Judge Tse is on criminal duty, the Court may move motion
hearings to Friday afternoons.
Case management and pretrial conferences are heard on Fridays at 2:00 p.m.
B. Location
Usually, motion hearings and pretrial conferences will be held in Judge Tse’s courtroom,
while case management conferences will be held remotely on Zoom. Parties should check
ECF or the Court’s calendar to confirm the location of any particular hearing.
When a Zoom proceeding is scheduled, the Zoom link will be posted on the ECF docket.
The link is also available at https://www.cand.uscourts.gov/judges/tse-alex-g-agt/.
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See www.cand.uscourts.gov/forms/guidelines-for-professional-conduct/
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C. Zoom Protocol
For all Zoom proceedings, counsel must appear by video. Audio-only appearances are
prohibited without prior authorization.
D. Scheduling
Parties should notice motions pursuant to the local rules. Noticed dates may be reset as
the Court’s calendar requires or vacated when oral argument isn’t needed. For scheduling
questions, please contact Judge Tse’s Courtroom Deputy, Stephen Ybarra, at (415) 522-
3694 or
[email protected].
E. Opportunities for Junior Lawyers
The Court welcomes and encourages oral argument by less-experienced attorneys.
F. Transcripts
All hearings, case management, status and pretrial conferences are audio recorded; court
reporters are usually not provided. Parties may request a copy of the audio recording (on
CD), or a transcription of the audio recording, or the court reporter’s transcript if
applicable, by following the procedures set out at www.cand.uscourts.gov/transcripts.
III. CONSENT CASES
In civil cases that are randomly assigned to Judge Tse for all purposes, the parties should
file their written consent to the assignment of a United States Magistrate Judge for all
purposes, or their written declination of consent, as soon as possible. If a party files a
dispositive motion (such as a motion to dismiss or a motion to remand), the moving party
must file the consent or declination simultaneously with the motion. The
consent/declination form is available at www.cand.uscourts.gov/civilforms.
In no event shall the consent or declination be filed later than the deadlines specified in
Civil Local Rule 73-1.
IV. COURTESY COPIES
Paper courtesy copies should not be submitted unless the Court requests them.
V. PROPOSED ORDERS
Any stipulation or proposed order in a case subject to e-filing should, in addition to being
e-filed, be submitted by email to
[email protected] as a Word document on the
same day the document is e-filed. This email address should be used only for this stated
purpose unless otherwise directed by the Court.
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VI. CIVIL CASE MANAGEMENT
A. Case Management Statements
Prior to an initial or further case management conference, counsel must meet and confer
and then, no later than seven days before the conference, file a joint statement, or file
separate statements if permitted by Civil Local Rule 16-9. For all initial case management
conferences, the joint statement must comply with the Standing Order for All Judges of
the Northern District of California, available here. For further case management
conferences, the joint statement need only address matters that the parties wish to discuss
and matters that have changed since the last conference.
B. Amended Pleadings
Any party who files an amended pleading must concurrently file a redlined version
comparing the amended pleading to the prior operative pleading.
C. Documents filed on ECF
When exhibits are included with a motion, opposition brief, or reply brief, the exhibits
should be filed separately on ECF. For example, if a motion is Docket No. 30, and a
declaration with 10 exhibits is Docket No. 31, Exhibit A should be filed as Docket No.
31-1, Exhibit B should be filed as Docket No. 31-2, and so on. All exhibits should be
filed in a searchable OCR format when possible.
D. Motions to File Under Seal
Parties are reminded that court proceedings are presumptively public. Any request to file
a document under seal must comply with Civil Local Rule 79-5.
VII. CIVIL DISCOVERY
A. Evidence Preservation
Parties must take the steps needed to preserve information relevant to the issues in the
litigation, including suspending document-destruction programs that, if not suspended,
could result in evidence spoliation.
B. Discovery Disputes
Discovery disputes referred from a district judge and those that occur in cases assigned to
Judge Tse for all purposes, through consent of the parties, shall proceed as follows:
Upon the development of an impasse, the parties must first meet and confer. Counsel for
each party must meet and confer in person or by videoconference. A mere exchange of
letters, e-mails, or telephone calls does not satisfy the meet and confer requirement.
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If the parties are unable to resolve their dispute informally after a good-faith effort,
including meet and confer efforts conducted by lead counsel, the parties shall prepare a
joint statement of not more than five pages (12-point or greater font) stating the
following:
1. an attestation that counsel for the parties met and conferred in person or by
videoconference in good faith to resolve their dispute before filing the
joint statement;
2. each party’s position, including pertinent factual background, requested
relief, and citations to relevant legal authority; and
3. each party’s final proposed compromise.
Relevant declarations and exhibits may be attached to the joint statement. If specific
discovery requests, i.e., interrogatories, requests for production of documents, requests
for admission, are in dispute, the parties must attach the following to their joint statement:
a copy of the disputed requests, a copy of the disputed responses, and a copy of the
definitions of any defined terms used in the disputed requests.
A joint statement should address only one issue or a few issues that are inextricably
related. Multiple joint statements should be filed if there are discrete issues in dispute.
Joint statements must be e-filed (unless the case is exempt from e-filing requirements)
under the Civil Events category of “Motions and Related Filings > Motions – General >
Discovery Letter Brief.”
Upon review of a joint statement, the Court will advise the parties of how it intends to
proceed. The Court may issue a ruling, schedule a hearing, or order more briefing. The
Court may also order the parties to come to the courthouse to meet and confer in good
faith.
C. Protective Orders
If parties believe a protective order is necessary, they must when practicable use one of
the model protective orders, available at www.cand.uscourts.gov/forms/model-protective-
orders.
When parties ask the Court to approve a stipulated protective order, they must file with
the proposed order either (i) a statement in which they confirm that the proposed
protective order doesn’t differ in any respect from the model order, or (ii) a redline
comparing the proposed protective order with the model order, along with an explanation
of any changes.
The Court endeavors to use the model orders and discourages making edits to them for
purely stylistic reasons, even if all parties agree.
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D. Privilege Logs
Privilege logs must be promptly provided and sufficiently detailed and informative to
justify the privilege. See Fed. R. Civ. P. 26(b)(5).
Privilege logs must contain the following:
• the title and description of the document, including the number of pages or Bates-
number range;
• the subject matter addressed in the document;
• the identity and position of its author;
• the identity and position of all addressees and recipients;
• the date the document was prepared and, if different, the date on which it was sent
to or shared with persons other than its author; and
• the basis for the claim that the document is privileged or protected.
Failure to furnish this information promptly may be deemed a waiver of the privilege or
protection.
E. Document Responses
To the maximum extent feasible, all party files and records should be retained and
produced in their original form and sequence, including file folders, and the originals
should remain available for inspection by any counsel on reasonable notice.
F. Depositions
Depositions of fact witnesses must be noticed at least 30 days before the close of fact
discovery.
Counsel must consult in advance with opposing counsel to schedule depositions at a
mutually convenient time and location. Counsel and parties must comply with Fed. R.
Civ. P. 30(d)(1). Speaking objections are prohibited. When privilege is claimed, the
witness must answer questions relevant to the existence, extent, or waiver of the privilege
unless such information is itself privileged.
In true emergencies, any party may, after exhausting good-faith attempts to resolve
disputed issues, seek judicial intervention under Civil Local Rule 37-1(b) by contacting
Judge Tse through his courtroom deputy. Before calling, the parties must first send a
short email describing the nature of the dispute to
[email protected]. If the judge
is unavailable, the deposition shall proceed with objections noted for the record.
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VIII. UNREPRESENTED (PRO SE) PARTIES
Parties representing themselves should visit the link titled “If You Don’t Have a
lawyer…” on the Court’s homepage, www.cand.uscourts.gov. The link connects to a
page that discusses the Court’s Legal Help Centers, which provide free assistance for
unrepresented parties. Pro se civil litigants can request a Legal Help Center appointment
by emailing
[email protected] or by calling (415) 782-8982.
IT IS SO ORDERED.
___________________________
ALEX G. TSE
United States Magistrate Judge
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