Judge Alex G. Tse — United States District Court, Northern District of California

Standing Orders — Inline Excerpts

To reduce waste, paper courtesy copies should not be submitted unless the Court requests them.

Delivery Address

United States District Court Office of the Clerk 450 Golden Gate Ave, 16th Floor San Francisco, CA 94102

Judge Tse's Civil Standing Order

[Source: https://cand.uscourts.gov/sites/default/files/standing-orders/AGT-Civil-Standing-Order_11-15-2024.pdf]

(last updated November 15, 2024) 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Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and the Northern District of California’s local rules and general orders, except as superseded by this standing order.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/.

1 See www.cand.uscourts.gov/forms/guidelines-for-professional-conduct/

 (last updated November 15, 2024) 

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 agtcrd@cand.uscourts.gov.

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 agtpo@cand.uscourts.gov 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.

 (last updated November 15, 2024) 

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.

 (last updated November 15, 2024) 

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:

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;

each party’s position, including pertinent factual background, requested relief, and citations to relevant legal authority; and

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.

 (last updated November 15, 2024) 

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 agtcrd@cand.uscourts.gov. If the judge is unavailable, the deposition shall proceed with objections noted for the record.

 (last updated November 15, 2024) 

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 fedpro@sfbar.org or by calling (415) 782-8982.

IT IS SO ORDERED.

ALEX G. TSE United States Magistrate Judge

Magistrate Judge Alex G. Tse's Standing Order for Settlement Conferences

[Source: https://cand.uscourts.gov/sites/default/files/standing-orders/AGT-Settlement-Conference-Standing-Order.pdf]

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA, SAN FRANCISCO DIVISION SETTLEMENT CONFERENCE STANDING ORDER FOR MAGISTRATE JUDGE ALEX G. TSE

1. Counsel shall ensure that whatever discovery is needed for all sides to evaluate the case for settlement purposes is completed by the date of the settlement conference.
   Counsel shall cooperate in providing discovery informally and expeditiously.
2. Lead trial counsel must attend the settlement conference with the parties and with the persons having full authority to negotiate and settle the case. Attendance by parties that are corporate entities, government entities, or insurers is governed by ADR Local Rule 7-3(a).
3. Each party shall prepare a settlement conference statement, which must be emailed to the Court in .pdf format, at agtsettlement@cand.uscourts.gov, no later than seven days prior to the conference. Paper copies should not be provided.
4. Settlement conference statements must be served on opposing counsel. Any party may email an additional confidential statement to the Court, the contents of which will not be disclosed to the other parties. If a defendant plans to assert that it lacks resources and is unable to offer monetary compensation or that it otherwise does not intend to offer monetary compensation as part of a settlement, it must notify the Court of this in a confidential statement no later than seven days prior to the conference.
5. The settlement conference statement shall include at least the following:
    a brief statement of the facts of the case;  a brief statement of the claims and defenses;
    a candid evaluation of the party’s likelihood of prevailing;  a summary of the proceedings to date and any pending motions;  the relief sought;  any discrete issue that, if resolved, would facilitate resolution of the case; and  the party’s position on settlement, including present demands and offers and a history of past settlement discussions. The parties must notify chambers immediately, at agtsettlement@cand.uscourts.gov, if their case settles prior to the date set for the settlement conference.
   United States Magistrate Judge IT IS SO ORDERED.

ALEX G. TSE

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