Copies of Judge Chen's Standing Orders are available in the clerk's office in any division of the Northern District or here on the website under Standing Orders. 

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***IMPORTANT NOTICE REGARDING CASES BEFORE JUDGE CHEN***

Effective June 1, 2024, all civil law and  motion hearings and civil pretrial conferences will be held in-person in Courtroom 5, 17th Floor.  All parties are required to arrive 20 minutes prior to the scheduled hearing time to check-in with the Courtroom Deputy.  If counsel wishes to appear by Zoom, such request (stipulation or administrative motion and reason therefor) must be filed with a Proposed Order on the docket and shall be made no later than 14 days in advance of the hearing.  

All criminal hearings and conferences will remain scheduled by videoconference on Wednesdays, unless an in-person hearing is requested.  In-Person hearings on criminal matters are now available to be set on Thursdays mornings from 9AM - 12:00PM noon.  All live in-court appearances will be held in Courtroom #5, 17th Floor.

Initial Case Management Conferences, Further Case Management Conferences, and Status Conferences in all civil matters are now regularly scheduled on Tuesdays at 1:30PM and 2:30PM, respectively, effective July 1, 2021. These hearings will be conducted via Zoom.   Standing Order revised.

CHAMBER COPIES:

Hard chamber copies no longer required. Exceptions to this are pretrial conferences, summary judgments, claims constructions.  Parties are to review revised Civil Standing Order - General for further details. 

CIVIL LAW AND MOTION HEARINGS:

The Court will generally limit the number of motions on any civil law-and-motion date to 6 matters; counsel should not notice a motion on a date that already has 6 cases with a motion(s) pending. 

 If 6 matters are already pending but there is good cause to add another matter to the calendar, a party may file an administrative request for relief at the time it files its substantive motion, asking for its matter to be added to the otherwise full calendar.  There may be good cause where, e.g., a party is moving for a temporary restraining order or preliminary injunction; a party is filing a motion for summary judgment in accordance with the schedule laid out in the pretrial order; or a party's motion needs resolution based on other deadlines set by the Court.

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To enter Judge Chen's virtual courtroom, please click the link below:

https://cand-uscourts.zoomgov.com/j/1619911861?pwd=TjVma1lnMlJlNHR3ZE9QMkFjNkFndz09

Webinar ID: 161 991 1861
Password: 912881

For important information and guidance on technical preparation, please see https://www.cand.uscourts.gov/zoom/.

All cases are being heard via the Zoom Webinar link above.

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***THIS COURT DOES NOT RESERVE HEARING DATES AND DOES NOT ISSUE TENTATIVE RULINGS***

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Court Schedule (subject to change if in trial:)

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Pretrial Conference: Tuesday at 2:30 p.m.

Trial: Monday - Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. (Dark on Thursday)

 NOTICE OF UNAVAILABILITY

Please take notice that the Honorable Edward M. Chen, United States District Judge, will not be available on the following days:

August 31, 2026 - September 4, 2026

September 9-10, 2026 

September 17-18, 2026

October 7, (Beginning at 1:30 PM) 21-23, 2026

November 2-3, 2026

November 9-13; 18-20, 2026; 11/30/2026

December 1-8, 2026

All counsel are hereby given notice that such absence constitutes a certificate of unavailability pursuant to Civil L.R. 1-5(p).

If urgency requires, counsel in cases assigned to Judge Chen may request a hearing before the General Duty Judge as provided in Civil Local Rule 7-1(c).