CIVIL AND DISCOVERY REFERRAL MATTERS STANDING ORDER
MAGISTRATE JUDGE SUSAN VAN KEULEN
Updated February 2026
1. LOCATION
The parties must check ECF to confirm whether any hearing will be in-person or by
Zoom video link.
• All civil discovery and motion hearings will be in person unless otherwise noticed by
the Court in Courtroom 6, 4th Floor, San Jose Federal Courthouse.
• Initial case management conferences, status conferences, and order to show cause
hearings in re settlement/dismissal will be by Zoom video link. Specific call-in/Zoom
instructions will be posted on ECF no later than 48 hours in advance. General
information is available in Judge van Keulen’s scheduling notes on the Court website.
• Any deviation from the appearance standards above requires prior approval of the
Court. The requesting party must file an administrative motion to appear by Zoom
video link or telephonic link at least 5 days before the hearing. If the request is
granted, specific call-in/Zoom instructions will be posted on ECF no later than 48
hours in advance.
2. SCHEDULING
Civil case management conferences are held on Tuesdays at 9:30 a.m.
Civil motions are heard on Tuesdays at 10:00 a.m.
Civil pretrial conferences are held on Thursdays at 9:30 a.m.
Parties are not required to reserve a hearing date but should confirm at cand.uscourts.gov
that the Court is not unavailable on the date selected. Hearings and motions may be reset
by the Court as its calendar requires. For questions regarding scheduling, please contact
the Courtroom Deputy at
[email protected] or (408) 535-5363.
3. COMMUNICATION WITH THE COURT
Any requests for Court action must be filed on the docket. Parties must refrain from
contacting the Courtroom Deputy by email or telephone unless (1) required to do so by
one of the Court’s standing orders; (2) instructed to do so by the Court; or (3) necessary
to inform the Court about a time-sensitive matter. Contact with the Courtroom Deputy
must be limited to purely administrative matters, such as scheduling and general case
management. Parties are not to communicate with the Courtroom Deputy regarding
substantive or procedural issues, such as requests for legal advice or for interpretation of
procedural rules.
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4. CASES INITIALLY ASSIGNED TO JUDGE VAN KEULEN: CONSENT OR DECLINATION
In civil cases initially assigned to Judge van Keulen for all purposes, each party must file
written consent to the jurisdiction of a magistrate judge or a written request for
reassignment to a district judge as soon as possible but no later than the deadlines
specified in Civil Local Rule 73-1(a). If a party files a dispositive motion (such as a
motion to dismiss or a motion for remand), the moving party must file the consent or
declination simultaneously with the motion.
5. CASE MANAGEMENT CONFERENCE STATEMENTS
In civil cases assigned to Judge van Keulen for all purposes, all joint case management
statements are due one week before the case management conference. Joint case
management statements must include as the first item the case schedule, if it has been set,
as well as all information required under the Standing Order for All Judges of the
Northern District of California – Contents of Joint Case Management Statement.
6. MOTIONS AND STIPULATIONS
a. PROPOSED ORDERS AND STIPULATIONS
All stipulations and proposed orders are to be emailed in Word format to
[email protected] on the same day as the documents are e-filed.
b. MOTIONS TO SEAL
• Motions to seal shall be filed in accordance with Civil Local Rule 79-5. When
submitting a proposed order pursuant to Civil Local Rule 79-5(c)(3), the table
format included in the order shall comply with the below format:
Document Text to be Sealed Basis for Sealing
[redacted portions to be identified by
page and line number]
• Where a party (“Filing Party”) files a motion to consider whether another party’s
(“Designating Party”) materials should be sealed pursuant to Civil Local Rule 79-
5(f), the Designating Party’s statement and/or declaration in support of sealing
pursuant to Civil Local Rule 79-5(f)(3) shall attach as exhibit(s) the proposed,
public, redacted version of the document(s) sought to be sealed to the extent the
proposed redactions differ from the redactions proposed by the Filing Party.
c. POST-ANSWER DISPOSITIVE MOTIONS
Unless otherwise permitted by the Court, only one Motion for Summary Judgment,
Partial Summary Judgment, or Summary Adjudication may be filed by each party.
d. MOTIONS TO STRIKE AFFIRMATIVE DEFENSES
Motions to strike affirmative defenses may not be filed without leave of Court. Leave of
Court may be sought by a motion for administrative relief pursuant to Civil Local Rule
7-11.
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e. FORMAT OF MOTIONS:
i. USE OF FOOTNOTES
Use of footnotes in Court filings is to be limited to providing brief points of
clarification or cross-references. Argument in footnotes will not be
considered by the Court. The form of footnotes must comply with Civil
Local Rule 3-4(c)(2). The Court may strike any filing that includes
excessive or improper footnotes.
ii. EXHIBITS
The cover page of any exhibit submitted in connection with briefing on a
motion must include the exhibit number and the title or brief description of
the exhibit (e.g., “Ex. 1 – 1/1/2023 email from Joe Smith to Nancy Jones”).
f. HEARING MATERIALS
Any party who distributes materials at the hearing on any matter must supply the
Court with two color copies of those materials at the hearing and all other parties
with at least one copy. Unless the Court orders otherwise, all materials are to be
filed on ECF promptly following the hearing.
7. DISCOVERY
a. PROTECTIVE ORDERS
All proposed discovery protective orders in cases in which Judge van Keulen is the
assigned discovery referral judge and in cases that are assigned to Judge van Keulen for
all purposes through consent of the parties shall be submitted for Judge van Keulen’s
signature in text- searchable PDF format. If the submitting party or parties have used
one of this District’s model protective orders as the basis for their proposed
protective order, their submission of the proposed protective order must be
accompanied by either: (1) a redline version indicating any changes from the model
order or (2) a statement in the caption or a cover pleading that the parties have not
made any changes from the model order.
b. DISCOVERY DISPUTES
Discovery disputes in cases in which Judge van Keulen is the assigned discovery referral
judge and in cases that are assigned to Judge van Keulen for all purposes through consent
of the parties shall follow the same procedures set forth below:
• For all discovery disputes, the parties must meet and confer to attempt to resolve the
dispute. The meet and confer must be in person or by videoconference and conducted
by counsel with authority to negotiate and compromise. A mere exchange of letters,
emails, telephone calls, or voicemail messages does not satisfy the requirement to
meet and confer.
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• If the parties are unable to reach a resolution, they must file a joint statement not to
exceed 10 pages, exclusive of the caption page, double-spaced with 12-point font and
in text-searchable PDF format. Footnotes, if any, must comply with section 6(e)(i)
above.
• In the opening paragraph, the joint statement must: (1) state the dates for the close of
fact discovery and, if set, start of trial; (2) briefly describe each unresolved issue
without undue argument; and (3) set forth each party’s proposed compromise with
respect to each unresolved issue.
• In addition, when specific discovery requests are disputed, the parties must include
as an exhibit a joint chart, in landscape format, summarizing the basis of the
dispute. Specifically, the chart must set forth in columns only the following: the
disputed request, the response thereto, the parties’ respective proposed compromises
and a blank column for the Court’s use. The chart must not contain argument; the
Court considers only arguments set forth in the joint statement. The summary chart
should present as follows:
Discovery Request(s) Objecting Party’s Requesting Objecting For the
(e.g., RFPs, Response or Party’s Party’s Court’s Use
Interrogatories, Etc.) Objection Proposed Proposed
Compromise Compromise
This column should This column should
include the text of any include the text of
disputed request, with original (and
no additional supplemental, if
argumentation by a appropriate) response
party. at issue.
Where numerous Only if the response or
requests are in dispute, objection is originally
the Parties may and properly made in
organize them by the joint statement, a
category, identified by brief summary of the
sub-headings in the joint-statement
chart, to be resolved in response may be
a single ruling. included. This chart is
not the place to restate
arguments or assert
additional arguments.
• The joint statement must also include each party’s proposed order as an exhibit.
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• Absent prior leave of Court, the only additional exhibit(s) permitted to the joint
statement are a copy of the specific discovery request(s) at issue and the response(s)
to it (e.g., requests for production, interrogatories, privilege log, nonparty subpoena,
deposition excerpts, initial disclosures, contentions, etc.)
• The joint statement must be filed in ECF under the Civil Events category of Motions
and Related Filings > Motions: General > Discovery Letter Brief.
• Word versions of the joint chart exhibit and each party’s proposed order must also be
emailed to
[email protected]
• Upon review of the joint statement, the Court will advise the parties regarding the
need, if any, for more briefing, a hearing, or a telephonic conference.
• For all cases, the joint statement must be filed no later than 7 days after the
discovery cut-off date(s) pursuant to Civil Local Rule 37-3.
c. PRIVILEGE LOGS
If a party withholds information that is responsive to a discovery request and is otherwise
discoverable under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, by claiming that it is privileged
or protected from discovery under the attorney work product doctrine or any other
protective doctrine (including, but not limited to, privacy rights), that party shall prepare a
privilege log (Fed. R. Civ. P. 26(b)(5)) setting forth the privilege relied upon and
specifying separately for each document or for each category of similarly-situated
documents:
a. The name and job title or capacity of the author;
b. The name and job title or capacity of each recipient;
c. The date the document was prepared and, if different, the date(s) on which it was
sent to or shared with persons other than its author(s);
d. The title and description of the document;
e. The subject matter addressed in the document;
f. The purpose(s) for which it was prepared or communicated; and
g. The specific basis for the claim that it is privileged.
The privilege log will be produced as quickly as possible, but no later than 14 days after
the discovery responses are due, unless the parties stipulate or the Court orders otherwise.
8. AMENDED PLEADINGS
If a party filed an amended complaint or other amended pleading, they must also file as
an exhibit to the pleading a redline version showing what changes have been made to the
most-recent version. Self-represented parties are not required to comply with this
requirement.
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9. CHAMBERS COPIES NOT REQUIRED; EXCEPTIONS
Pursuant to Civil Local Rule 5-1(d)(7), no chambers copies are required unless
specifically requested by the Court. If chambers copies are requested by the Court,
parties are to notify the courtroom deputy at
[email protected] when they have
been delivered.
10. USE OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI)
Counsel is responsible for providing complete and accurate representations in any
submission (including filings, demonstratives, evidence and oral argument) to the Court
as required by Rule 11 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, the California Rules of
Professional Conduct, and any other applicable legal or ethical guidance. Use of
generative AI tools, such as ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, etc., in preparing submissions to
the Court is not prohibited, but counsel and self-represented parties must at all times
personally confirm for themselves the accuracy of any content generated by these tools.
The signature of counsel or a self-represented party on any submission containing AI-
generated content, including citations generated by AI, constitutes a certification that the
signing attorney (or self-represented party) has personally verified the content’s accuracy.
The Court will impute any errors by such AI tools to the attorney or party whose
signature appears on the document containing those errors.
Failure to verify the accuracy of submissions, particularly the accuracy of citations to law
and evidence, may be grounds for sanctions. Counsel is responsible for maintaining
records of all prompts or inquiries submitted to any generative AI tools in the event those
records become relevant at any point.
SO ORDERED.
February 2, 2026
SUSAN VAN KEULEN
United States Magistrate Judge
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