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UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
4 NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA
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6 STANDING ORDER FOR CIVIL CASES BEFORE
DISTRICT JUDGE HAYWOOD S. GILLIAM, JR.
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8 CONFORMITY TO RULES
9 1. Parties and counsel shall follow the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, the Civil
10 Local Rules, and the General Orders of the Northern District of California, except as superseded
11 by this Court’s standing orders.
12 SERVICE OF STANDING ORDER
Northern District of California
United States District Court
13 2. Plaintiff (or in the case of removed cases, any removing defendant) shall promptly
14 serve copies of this standing order upon all parties to the action, and upon those subsequently
15 joined, in accordance with the provisions of Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 4 and 5. Following
16 service, the responsible party shall file a certificate of service with the Clerk of this Court.
17 COMMUNICATION WITH THE COURT
18 3. Counsel shall not attempt to contact Judge Gilliam or his chambers staff by
19 telephone, email, or any other ex parte means, but may contact his Courtroom Deputy, Nikki
20 Riley, at (510) 637-3543 regarding scheduling or other appropriate matters.
21 SCHEDULING
22 4. All in-person hearings and appearances will be held in Courtroom 2 on the 4th
23 Floor of the United States Courthouse, 1301 Clay Street, Oakland, California.
24 5. Civil case management conferences are generally conducted via Public Zoom
25 Webinar on Tuesdays at 2:00 p.m.
26 6. Civil pretrial conferences are generally conducted in person on Tuesdays at 3:00
27 p.m.
28 7. Civil motions are generally heard in person on Thursdays at 2:00 p.m.
1 8. Trials are generally conducted from 8:30 a.m. until 1:30 p.m., Monday through
2 Friday. Please refer to this Court’s Civil Pretrial and Trial Standing Order for information
3 regarding civil trials.
4 9. Counsel need not reserve motion hearing dates, but should check Judge Gilliam’s
5 scheduling notes on the Court’s website to determine the next available law and motion calendar
6 date. Motions may be reset as the Court’s calendar requires. The order of call on each calendar
7 will be determined by the Court. Scheduling questions should be addressed to Judge Gilliam’s
8 Courtroom Deputy.
9 10. The Court may find a matter suitable for disposition without oral argument and
10 vacate the hearing on the matter. If, however, any party advises the Court in writing by no later
11 than two days from the date of the order vacating the hearing that the argument for its side will be
12 conducted by a lawyer who has been licensed to practice law for five or fewer years, then the
Northern District of California
United States District Court
13 Court will consider rescheduling the hearing in order to provide that opportunity.
14 INVITATION TO SELF-IDENTIFY PRONOUNS AND HONORIFICS
15 11. Litigants and lawyers may indicate their pronouns (e.g., she/her, he/him, they/their)
16 and honorifics (e.g., Mr., Ms., Mx., Dr.) by filing a letter, adding the information in the name
17 block or signature line of the pleadings, or verbally informing the Court when making an
18 appearance.
19 CASE MANAGEMENT CONFERENCES
20 12. The parties must file a joint case management statement addressing those items
21 required by the Standing Order for all Judges of the Northern District of California. Parties shall
22 file their joint statement not less than seven calendar days prior to the case management
23 conference. In cases involving pro se litigants, the parties may file separate case management
24 statements.
25 13. Consistent with Local Rule 16-8(c) and Alternative Dispute Resolution (“ADR”)
26 Local Rule 3-5(b), at least seven calendar days prior to the case management conference, the
27 parties shall also file the Stipulation and Proposed Order form, which identifies the ADR process
28 that the parties have selected and a proposed deadline by which the parties will conduct the ADR
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1 session. The court form is available at:
2 https://www.cand.uscourts.gov/filelibrary/3389/ADR_Stip_fillable.pdf
3 The default timing for ADR is within 90 days of the initial case management conference. To the
4 extent the parties cannot agree on form or timing, they should explain the dispute in the joint
5 statement and be prepared to discuss it at the initial case management conference.
6 14. In proposing a case schedule, the parties should agree on a trial date and work
7 backward from that date to ensure adequate time for expert discovery, dispositive and Daubert
8 motions, class certification motions, and other events. The Court provides the following
9 additional guidance:
10 • Daubert motions must be filed and heard by the dispositive motion hearing deadline.
11 • The parties must allow at least twelve weeks between the proposed dispositive and
12 Daubert motions hearing deadline and the proposed final pretrial conference.
Northern District of California
United States District Court
13 • The parties must also allow at least two weeks between the proposed final pretrial
14 conference and the first day of the proposed trial.
15 The Court’s expectation is that many cases can and should be able to be tried within twelve
16 months of the case management conference. Counsel requesting longer pretrial periods must be
17 prepared to justify that request at the initial case management conference.
18 15. Once the Court has entered a case schedule, the parties may not move the dates
19 except by Court order. If the parties seek to move one of these dates, the parties must file a joint
20 statement of no more than three pages proving particularized good cause for the requested change.
21 A trial date typically will be set at the initial case management conference. Once set, the trial date
22 will not be continued absent compelling good cause.
23 16. The attorney appearing at a case management conference must have full authority
24 to make decisions about any issue that may come up during the conference.
25 REMOTE APPEARANCES
26 17. Aside from civil case management conferences, which are generally conducted via
27 Public Zoom Webinar, attorneys may not appear remotely absent a showing of good cause. In
28 general, any attorney who wishes to argue at a motion hearing may not appear remotely. Parties
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1 must file any request to appear remotely at least one week in advance of the hearing.
2 DISCOVERY DISPUTES
3 18. Discovery disputes should be brought to the Court’s attention as early as possible.
4 If the parties cannot resolve their discovery dispute after a good faith effort, they shall prepare and
5 file a joint letter of no longer than five pages stating the nature and status of their dispute. As soon
6 as a discovery-related matter arises, the Court may refer the case to a Magistrate Judge to handle
7 all discovery disputes. After a Magistrate Judge has been assigned to a case for discovery, the
8 parties in that case must handle any discovery matters according to the procedures set by that
9 Judge.
10 19. The parties must allow sufficient time for the assigned Magistrate Judge to resolve
11 discovery disputes before the close of discovery. Absent truly compelling reasons, the Court will
12 not extend case deadlines based on a pending discovery dispute.
Northern District of California
United States District Court
13 MOTIONS FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT
14 20. Parties are limited to filing one motion for summary judgment. Any party wishing
15 to exceed this limit must request leave of Court and must show good cause.
16 21. Joint statements of undisputed facts are not required but are helpful if completely
17 agreed upon. Separate statements of undisputed facts may not be filed.
18 EXHIBITS
19 22. Where each party relies on the same exhibit, the later-filing party should cite to the
20 earlier-filed exhibit and should not file a duplicate exhibit. If possible, the parties should meet and
21 confer prior to filing a motion and submit a joint appendix of evidence.
22 CITATIONS
23 23. If either party cites to an unpublished case, the Court generally prefers Westlaw
24 citations. If the Westlaw citation cannot be provided, the party should include the case number,
25 court name, and exact date of publication in the citation.
26 PROPOSED ORDERS
27 24. Proposed orders shall be submitted in Word format by email to
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[email protected] on the same day the proposed order is e-filed.
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1 FILING AND COURTESY COPIES
2 25. Each PDF document should be text-searchable whenever practicable. This
3 requirement is waived for litigants proceeding pro se.
4 26. Paper courtesy copies shall not be submitted unless the Court requests them. The
5 Court may at times order the parties to provide digital courtesy copies of motions filings,
6 including supporting documents, on portable media (e.g., a CD or flash drive).
7 MOTIONS TO SEAL
8 27. Any party seeking to file a document under seal must carefully review and comply
9 with Civil Local Rule 79-5, except as that Rule is modified here for civil cases before Judge
10 Gilliam.
11 28. When submitting a motion to seal, the filing party must state whether the
12 compelling reasons or good cause standard applies and explain why. See Kamakana v. City and
Northern District of California
United States District Court
13 Cnty. of Honolulu, 447 F.3d 1172, 1178-82 (9th Cir. 2006).
14 29. The filing party must make a specific showing explaining why each document that
15 it seeks to seal may justifiably be sealed and why the proposed redactions are as narrowly tailored
16 as possible, rather than making blanket statements about the grounds for sealing. Generic and
17 vague references to “competitive harm” are almost always insufficient justification for sealing.
18 30. Any proposed order under Civil Local Rule 79-5(c)(3) must include in the table for
19 each item sought to be sealed: (1) the docket numbers of the public and provisionally sealed
20 versions of documents sought to be filed under seal; (2) the name of the document; (3) the specific
21 portion(s) of the document sought to be filed under seal; and (4) the filer’s reasons for seeking
22 sealing of the material, along with citations to the relevant declarations and any supporting legal
23 authority.
24 31. Parties may use the following format as a guide:
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1 32. Any declaration by a Designating Party under Civil Local Rule 79-5(f)(3) must
2 include a new proposed order in the tabular format required by Civil Local Rule 79-5(c)(3) that
3 includes the Designating Party’s reasons for sealing the material. In addition, any declaration by a
4 Designating Party under Civil Local Rule 79-5(c)(3) that seeks less extensive sealing than its
5 associated administrative motions to seal must be accompanied by revised redacted and
6 unredacted versions of the documents sought to be sealed that comply with the requirements of
7 Civil Local Rule 79-5(d) and (e), including the requirement that the portions sought to be sealed
8 must be clearly marked on the unredacted version.
9 IT IS SO ORDERED.
10 Dated: July 9, 2024
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HAYWOOD S. GILLIAM, JR.
12 United States District Judge
Northern District of California
United States District Court
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