LASC Issues General Order Extending Trials Due to COVID-19
Below is important information recently sent by the Los Angeles Superior Court regarding the trials and other court services in light of the current public health crisis, which may impact pending claims and litigation you are handling and/or your team is as well.
The Court’s order continued all trials scheduled from August 10, 2020 to September 8, 2020 until further notice. In essence, each court will notify the parties affected by this continuance at a later date. The Court specifically noted that all pre-trial dates are also continued with the new trial dates.
When the Court reschedules the trial, for civil non-jury trials, it will be set to commence after November 16, 2020. For civil jury trials, the trial will be set for some time after January 1, 2021.
While the order states the “Court finds good cause to continue any and all civil jury trials until January 2021,” and the Court’s order on the continued trial dates states the “Court will not set any Civil jury trials to commence before January 2021,” the order does not currently affect trials scheduled between September 9, 2020 to December 31, 2020. We note that the Court previously issued a similar order in July continuing all trials scheduled between July 10, 2020 and August 8, 2020. Thus, the current order continues trials between August 10, 2020 and September 8, 2020.
Accordingly, if you have a case scheduled to go to trial between September 9, 2020 and December 31,2020, we recommend preparing for trial as scheduled until the Court issues another order continuing trial. If you need to continue trial scheduled between those dates, we recommend filing a stipulation to continue trial or an ex parte application to continue trial. We note, per the Court’s order, the current public health crisis was deemed a good cause to continue trial in the Court’s order and would provide good cause to seek continuance.
As always, please feel free to contact us with any questions or requests for information or discussion(s).