UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA
STANDING ORDER FOR CRIMINAL CASES BEFORE JUDGE VINCE CHHABRIA
SUMMARY TABLE OF DEADLINES ............................................................................................... 2
CONFORMITY WITH RULES ........................................................................................................... 2
CHANGE OF PLEA ............................................................................................................................. 2
MOTIONS............................................................................................................................................. 3
SEALED FILINGS ............................................................................................................................... 3
EVIDENTIARY HEARINGS .............................................................................................................. 3
PRETRIAL FILINGS AND DEADLINES .......................................................................................... 4
PRETRIAL CONFERENCE................................................................................................................. 8
TRIAL EXHIBITS ................................................................................................................................ 8
PRETRIAL ARRANGEMENTS ........................................................................................................ 10
JURY SELECTION AND TRIAL...................................................................................................... 11
SUMMARY TABLE OF DEADLINES
DEADLINE DATE
Change of Plea – Copy of Plea Agreement Friday Before Plea Entered at 12 p.m.
Supplemental Jury Questionnaire Questions, 21 Days Before Pretrial Conference
Objections to Jury Questionnaire
Discovery Cut-Off (Absent Contrary Order) 14 Days Before Pretrial Conference
Pretrial Statement, Motions in Limine 14 Days Before Pretrial Conference
Jury Instructions, Verdict Form, Proposed 7 Days Before Pretrial Conference
Description of the Case, Exhibit Lists,
Witness Lists, Individuals Involved List
Notification of Need for Interpreter for Trial 30 Days Before Trial
Arrangement of Daily Transcript or Real- 14 Days Before Trial
Time Reporting
Contact Bhavna Sharma Regarding 10 Days Before Trial
Courtroom Layout and Technology
Deliver Original and Copy Trial Exhibit Sets, 5 Days Before Trial
List of Names, Places, Uncommon Terms and
Acronyms
CONFORMITY WITH RULES
1. The parties shall follow the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, the Criminal
Local Rules, and the General Orders of the Northern District of California, except as superseded
by this Court’s standing order.
CHANGE OF PLEA
2. If a plea is being entered pursuant to a plea agreement, counsel for the defendant
shall email a copy of the plea agreement to Bhavna Sharma at
[email protected] no later
than noon the business day before the plea is to be entered.
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MOTIONS
3. Motions should be filed and noticed in accordance with Criminal Local Rule 47-2
unless otherwise ordered.
4. Motions and other filings need not be on pleading paper with line numbers. The
Court prefers blank paper (although pleading paper will be accepted).
5. Paper courtesy copies are not accepted.
SEALED FILINGS
6. For any documents submitted under seal, the parties shall upload unredacted
copies to an online location designated by the Clerk’s office.
7. Federal courts are paid for by the public, and the public has the right to inspect
court records, subject to only narrow exceptions. The filing party must make a specific showing
explaining why each document that it seeks to seal may justifiably be sealed and why the
proposed redactions are as narrowly tailored as possible.
8. The parties should highlight any proposed redactions on the unredacted version of
the document.
9. If you have a complicated sealing motion, or set of motions, consider filling out
and filing the Motion to Seal Summary Table linked on the Standing Orders page of Judge
Chhabria’s website.
EVIDENTIARY HEARINGS
10. When using exhibits during evidentiary hearings, the parties must abide by the
Court’s instructions regarding preparation of exhibits for trial.
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PRETRIAL FILINGS AND DEADLINES
Discovery Cut-Off
11. Absent a contrary order from the Court, the discovery cut-off date is 14 days
before the pretrial conference. Any material disclosed after that date will be excluded unless the
disclosing party: (i) can show good cause for why it was not sought, obtained, and disclosed
sooner; and (ii) discloses it within 24 hours of receipt of the material.
Jury Questionnaire
12. In advance of the trial, the Jury Office will send prospective jurors an online
questionnaire. The questionnaire includes standard questions that are asked in every case, as well
as a maximum of ten supplemental questions specific to a given case. One of those questions will
ask about scheduling conflicts, so the parties can propose as many as nine other questions. At
least 21 days before the pretrial conference, the parties shall file the proposed questions on the
docket and submit a Word version to
[email protected]. The parties may agree on
proposed questions or submit competing lists. However, no argument may be included in this
submission. The Court will decide the final set of questions after giving the parties a chance to
object. For a copy of the standard questionnaire, as well as other questions that Judge Chhabria
tends to include in the supplemental questionnaire, see the Standing Orders section of Judge
Chhabria’s website.
13. The parties need not include a question that asks prospective jurors whether they
know any of the people involved in the case. The prospective jurors will be given an “Involved
Individuals” list when they are called in for jury selection.
14. Also no later than 21 days before the pretrial conference, the parties should
submit objections to any aspect of the standard questionnaire.
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Pretrial Statement
15. No later than 14 days before the pretrial conference, the parties must file a joint
pretrial statement that addresses the items listed in Criminal Local Rule 17.1-1(b).
Motions in Limine
16. Any motions in limine must be filed no later than 14 days before the pretrial
conference. Oppositions must be filed at least 7 days before the pretrial conference. No reply
papers will be considered.
Jury Instructions
17. The parties should file joint proposed jury instructions, and send a copy in Word
format to
[email protected], no later than 7 days before the pretrial conference. The
parties should always indicate the relevant authority for a proposed instruction. The parties
may use the Ninth Circuit Model Jury Instructions but should not assume that they are correct.
Any modifications to a form instruction must be plainly identified. The Court at times will
deviate from the Ninth Circuit Model Jury Instructions to make the instructions more readable
and to fit them to the facts of the case. The parties are encouraged to look at the Court’s past
jury instructions when drafting their proposed instructions. Examples are available on Judge
Chhabria’s web page.
18. Instructions on which the parties agree must be identified as “Stipulated Jury
Instruction No. Re ,” with the blanks filled in as appropriate.
19. If the parties disagree on an instruction, each party’s proposed version of the
disputed instruction shall be provided and identified as “Disputed Instruction No. Re
Offered by ,” with the blanks filled in as appropriate. All
proposed versions of the same instruction shall bear the same number. Following each set of
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proposed versions of a disputed instruction, each party shall explain, in no more than one page,
why the Court should give that party’s proposed instruction.
20. If the parties dispute whether a particular instruction should be given at all, the
proponent of the instruction shall provide proposed language, identified as “Disputed Instruction
No. Re Offered by ,” with the blanks filled in as
appropriate. Following the disputed instruction, each party shall explain, in no more than one
page, why the instruction should or should not be given.
21. The parties do not need to submit instructions from Chapters 1-3 of the Ninth
Circuit Manual, but they must indicate which of these instructions should be included and which
should be omitted.
22. The proposed jury instructions should not mention the indictment or the United
States Code unless there’s a compelling reason to do so. The instructions can simply refer to the
defendant as having been charged in “Count One” with X, in “Count Two” with Y, and so forth.
Statement of Objection to Unconscious Bias Video
23. Prospective jurors will be shown a video on unconscious bias in the jury office.
The video can be accessed here (www.cand.uscourts.gov/attorneys/jury-video). If a party objects
to prospective jurors’ viewing this video, the party must file a short statement (not to exceed one
page double-spaced) explaining its objection. The party should then alert the Court to its
objection at the pretrial conference.
Proposed Description of the Case
24. No later than 7 days before the pretrial conference, the parties should jointly file,
and send in Word format to
[email protected], a proposed description of the case. The
description will be inserted into the instruction sheet for the written jury questionnaire and will
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be repeated orally to prospective jurors when they come to the courtroom. If the parties can’t
agree on a description, they may file one document with competing descriptions (but without any
argument). Again, the description of the case should not refer to the indictment or to the United
States Code unless there’s a compelling reason to do so.
Verdict Forms
25. No later than 7 days before the pretrial conference, the parties must jointly file,
and send in Word format to
[email protected], either an agreed-upon proposed verdict
form or competing proposed verdict forms.
Exhibit Lists
26. No later than 7 days before the pretrial conference, each party must file, and send
in Word format to
[email protected], a list of exhibits. They need not submit the exhibits
themselves at this time, unless instructed otherwise by Judge Chhabria.
Witness Lists
27. No later than 7 days before the pretrial conference, the parties must file, and send
in Word format to
[email protected], lists of potential witnesses to be called at trial, other
than solely for impeachment or rebuttal.
Involved Individual Lists
28. No later than 7 days before the pretrial conference, the parties must jointly file,
and send in Word format to
[email protected], a list of people involved in the case. The
list should include counsel, the defendant or defendants, potential witnesses, and any other
people significantly involved in the case.
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PRETRIAL CONFERENCE
29. At the pretrial conference, the parties should be prepared to address motions in
limine, the written questionnaire, time limits for opening and closing arguments, and any issues
relating to exhibits or evidence. If either party believes that a dispute about jury instructions
must be resolved before opening statements, it should raise these issues at the pretrial
conference. Otherwise, the Court will typically discuss jury instructions with the parties during
trial.
TRIAL EXHIBITS
30. Each side must prepare a set of its own trial exhibits to be used with the witnesses
at trial and, if applicable, on appeal.
31. No later than 5 days before trial, each side shall upload to an online location
designated by the Clerk’s Office a copy of all exhibits, with each exhibit as a separate file, and
with each file named so that the exhibits appear sequentially when sorted by file name. The
parties should discuss with Judge Chhabria and the Courtroom Deputy how they will handle
showing exhibits to witnesses, including whether witness binders are necessary.
32. Exhibits shall be sequentially numbered (not lettered). Blocks of numbers should
be assigned to fit the needs of the case (e.g., the government has 1 to 100, Defendant A has 101
to 200, Defendant B has 201 to 300, etc.).
33. A single exhibit should be marked only once. If the government has marked an
exhibit, the defendant should not re-mark the same document with another number. Different
versions of the same document (e.g., versions of a document with and without additional
handwriting), however, must be treated as different exhibits and marked with different numbers.
34. To avoid any party claiming “ownership” of an exhibit, all exhibits shall be
marked and referred to as “Trial Exhibit No. ,” not as “Government’s Exhibit” or
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“Defendant’s Exhibit.”
35. Each exhibit shall be tagged as follows:
36. Exhibit tags shall be placed on or near the lower right-hand corner of the first
page of each exhibit. If the exhibit is a photograph, or the exhibit does not have enough room to
accommodate the tag on the front page, the tag shall be placed on the back of the last page of the
document in the lower left-hand corner.
Treatment of Exhibits During Trial
37. Counsel must consult with each other and the Courtroom Deputy at the end of
each trial day about which exhibits are in evidence and any limitations thereon. If there are any
disagreements, counsel should promptly bring them to Judge Chhabria’s attention.
38. Counsel must clearly announce the number of any exhibit used during the
proceedings, even if it has already been admitted.
39. At the close of evidence, before closing arguments, counsel must confer with the
Courtroom Deputy to make sure the exhibits in evidence are in good order.
40. Exhibit notebooks for the jury will not be permitted without prior permission from
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Judge Chhabria.
41. Publication may be by poster blow-up, use of the courtroom electronic evidence
presentation system, or such other method as is allowed in the circumstances. It is permissible to
highlight, circle, or underscore in the enlargements as long as it is clear that the alterations are
not on the original.
42. Each party shall retain a full set of exhibits after trial through the appellate
process. It is each party’s responsibility to make arrangements with the Clerk of the Court to file
the record on appeal.
PRETRIAL ARRANGEMENTS
43. Should a daily transcript and/or real-time reporting be desired, the parties shall
make arrangements with the Court Reporter Supervisor,
[email protected] at
least 14 days before the trial date.
44. No later than 5 days prior to the start of trial, the parties must provide the Court
Reporter a jointly-created list of names, places, and any uncommon terms or acronyms that are
likely to come up during the trial.
45. If any witness will require an interpreter at trial, counsel shall notify Bhavna
Sharma at least 30 days before the commencement of trial.
46. The parties should contact Bhavna Sharma no later than 10 days before trial to
discuss any questions or issues about the layout of the courtroom.
47. The Court may be able to provide access to an easel and the courtroom electronic
evidence presentation system. The parties should consult www.cand.uscourts.gov/courtroomtech
for information on the available courtroom technology. During trial, counsel may wish to use
computer graphics, poster blow-ups, or models. The parties must provide such equipment.
Counsel should share equipment to the maximum extent possible. The United States Marshal
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requires a court order to allow equipment into the courthouse. To request such an order, the
parties should contact the Courtroom Deputy no later than 10 days before trial. For electronic
equipment, the parties should arrange with the Courtroom Deputy no later than 10 days before
trial a date to set up and test the equipment in advance of trial and be prepared to maintain the
equipment during trial. The parties shall tape extension cords to the carpet for safety.
JURY SELECTION AND TRIAL
48. The parties do not need to submit proposed voir dire questions in advance of trial.
49. A day or so before jury selection, the Court will hold an “excusal hearing” for the
purpose of determining which prospective jurors should be excused for hardship or cause based
exclusively on their questionnaire responses. One to two days before the excusal hearing, the
Court will send counsel a copy of the responses. At the excusal hearing, the Court will make final
determinations as to which jurors to excuse for hardship or for cause based on their questionnaire
responses. The remaining jurors will be called in for jury selection.
50. Once the prospective jurors are in the courtroom, Judge Chhabria will discuss
hardships with them. Judge Chhabria may then ask a few raise-your-hand questions before
turning voir dire over to the lawyers. During voir dire, the Court will circulate the list of involved
individuals.
51. Each evening, counsel must notify the other side of the witnesses who will be
called the following two trial days.
52. The parties should review the guide for using prior statements of witnesses and
refreshing recollection at trial, which is posted in the Standing Orders section of Judge
Chhabria’s website.
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IT IS SO ORDERED.
Dated: June 26, 2026
Vince Chhabria
United States District Judge
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