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ATTENTION

Scam Alert: The Superior Court of Santa Cruz has been notified that an individual posing as a deputy/court security is calling court customers stating that they owe money for failing to appear. If you receive a call of this nature, please contact the court directly at 831-420-2200 to receive accurate information.

Civil Tentative Rulings

Rulings will remain accessible until the next week’s rulings are posted. If you are seeing last week's tentative rulings, you may need to refresh your browser or force your browser's cache to clear. To refresh your browser press F5 on the keyboard. To clear your cache hold down the CTRL and F5 buttons at the same time. The court strongly advises that you save your tentative rulings for later use in preparing your order after hearing. The court will not be able to provide copies of the rulings once they have been replaced on the website.

Prior to the scheduled hearing of a Law and Motion, Complex Civil Litigation or a Discovery matter, the Court may issue a tentative ruling, in the discretion of the judge. Pursuant to the restrictions in Code of Civil Procedure § 1161.2, no tentative rulings are posted for unlawful detainer cases and appearances are required.

The tentative ruling becomes the order of the court, and no hearing is held, unless one of the parties contests the tentative ruling by complying with California Rules of Court 3.1308 and Local Rule 2.10.

Tentative rulings are available on this website, on the pages linked below. If you do not have access to the Internet during the time period when the rulings are posted you may call (831) 420-2300 (Chambers) for assistance in obtaining your tentative ruling.

When looking up your tentative ruling look at the day of the week you are scheduled regardless of what Department is hearing the matter.

Tentative rulings will be accessible on the link below after 3:00 pm on the court day preceding the scheduled hearing.

Contesting a Tentative Ruling

To arrange to appear and contest a tentative ruling:

  1. You must notify the Court at (831) 420-2483 before 4:00 pm on the court day before the hearing. You may make your notification to the Court by leaving a message when prompted to do so at the end of the recorded greeting. Messages shall be brief, no longer than 30 seconds. When you leave your message state:
    • Case number;
    • Case name; 
    • Name of the attorney or self represented litigant, including phone number and area code; and
    • State that you are appearing to contest the tentative ruling.
  2. You must also notify opposing counsel by telephone or in person.

Parties who do not call to contest the ruling before 4:00 pm on the court day before the hearing, or who appear without notice to both the Court and opposing counsel, will not be heard.

You do not need to call or leave a message if you are not contesting the ruling. If no party has requested oral argument, appearances are not required and the tentative ruling will be adopted as the ruling of the Court.

Parties may appear remotely using Zoom™. For more information, please see the Remote Appearance page.

Order after hearing:

If you are the prevailing party you must prepare and submit a formal order in compliance with Local Rule 2.10.