Federal Courts Update – March 2025

For more federal courts content, please see the Quarterly Federal Courts Committee Newsletter. This quarter’s newsletter includes an interview with Judge Carolyn K. Delaney, Chief Magistrate of the Eastern District of California.

We are looking for six new members to join our Federal Courts Committee. If you are interested, please apply at https://calawyers.org/section/litigation/standing-committees/committee-on-federal-courts/ or email Committee Chair Tom Stout at Litigation@calawyers.org for more information.

Southern District of California

The Passing of the Gavel: On January 22, 2025, the Southern District of California celebrated the transition of Chief Judge from the Honorable Dana M. Sabraw to the Honorable Cynthia Bashant. (Recap.)

Central District of California

Launch of Opt-Out Civil Consent to Magistrate Judges Program: The Central District launched the Opt-Out Civil Consent to Magistrate Judges Program on December 1, 2024. Pursuant to that Program, a certain portion of new civil filings will be assigned directly to Magistrate Judges. The parties will receive a notice and be provided an opportunity to opt-out of the Program. For more, see here.

Northern District of California

Changes to Local Rules: Judges of the Northern District have proposed the following changes to Civil Local Rule 3-2 (concerning the civil cover sheet) and released a new civil cover sheet. (Notice 1, Notice 2.)

Eastern District of California

New Local Rules: The Eastern District Local Rules are updated, effective 1/1/2025 and can be found here. An explanation of the changes, which include changes to the Voluntary Dispute Resolution Program (VDRP) and bolstered video appearances for civil cases, can be found at this link.