New Procedures and Orders for Alameda Superior Court Asbestos and Complex Cases

Yesterday, Department 30 of the Superior Court of California, County of Alameda, announced new procedures and orders for asbestos and other complex cases. Commencing January, 2016, the Asbestos Department (D30) and the Civil Complex Departments (D17 and D21) will be merged into new departments. Henceforth, the merged departments will be renamed to the “Civil Complex/Asbestos” departments. Although additional changes will occur over time, a number of significant changes are discussed below.

Asbestos trials will be handled by Judge George Hernandez, Jr. in Departments 17, Judge Winnifred Smith in Department 21, and Judge Brad Seligman in Department 30. All cases with trial dates in the year 2016 that were previously assigned to Department 705 and cases with preferential trial settings, will be re-assigned to these three Civil Complex/Asbestos departments. Beginning in early 2016, Department 30 will re-assign a proportionate share of non-preference asbestos cases for trial to Departments 17 and 21. Additionally, Department 30 will also handle the Complex Determination Hearings and assign cased determined to be “complex” to Departments 17, 21 and 30. All three departments are expected to obtain a proportionate share of asbestos and other complex cases.

The Court also announced that it has revised its Initial Case Management Order and Pretrial Order. The new Pretrial Order will be issued for cases that have been set for trial in 2016. Most notably, the revised Pretrial Order provides further limitations on the number of Motions in Limine that may be filed. In addition to providing clarification on the discovery process, the revised Initial Case Management Order addresses the setting and length of plaintiff depositions.