The Superior Court of California, County of Orange, has adopted the following new local rules addressing remote appearances in civil, probate, and family law proceedings. (Code Civ. Proc., § 367.75; Cal. Rules of Court, rule 3.672(e).) A majority of the judges approved the rules earlier this month. (Code Civ. Proc., § 575.1.) Pursuant to California Rules of Court, rule 3.672 subdivision (e)(4), these rules have not been circulated for public comment and have an April 1, 2022 effective date. The new rules will be effective through July 1, 2023, or later if the sunset date of Code of Civil Procedure section 367.75 is extended.
New Local Rule 375 addresses in person and remote appearances in civil proceedings.
New Local Rule 601.02 addresses in person and remote appearances in probate proceedings.
New Local Rule 719 addresses in person and remote appearances in family law proceedings.
The new rules are linked here and are also posted on the Court’s website at https://www.occourts.org/directory/local-rules/. A hard copy of the rules are available upon request. Additional instructions and procedures to appear remotely are available on the Court’s website.
Emergency Rule 3 of the California Rules of Court was promulgated as a temporary measure to authorize remote appearances during the pandemic. Emergency Rule 3 was limited to criminal proceedings as of January 1, 2022 because Code of Civil Procedure section 367.75 had been enacted to authorize remote proceedings in civil cases between January 1, 2022 and July 1, 2023. On December 28, 2021, the Judicial Council adopted California Rules of Court, rule 3.672, setting forth additional procedures for remote appearances in civil case types. Subdivision (e)(5) of Rule 3.672 gave trial courts a grace period until March 31, 2022 to adopt rules in compliance with Rule 3.672. In compliance with the statute and rule, the Court therefore published interim procedures for remote proceedings for the period from January 1, 2022 to March 31, 2022. The new rules will supersede the interim procedures effective April 1, 2022.