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1. Permitted Appearances.
In general, telephonic appearances are
permitted except in situations where the party or counsel:
will be examining
witnesses;
is the proponent of a
chapter 11 disclosure statement or plan;
is counsel for a
client who is present in court; or
is directed by the court to appear personally.
There are no
restrictions on eligibility to appear by telephone based upon the geographic
location of the counsel or the party.
2.
Procedure for Arranging for Telephonic Appearances.
Telephonic appearances
are arranged through Court Conference. All parties/counsel using this service
must have an account or make arrangements to set one up well in advance of
the hearing. If you do not have an account established with Court Conference,
you must provide a credit card number at the time of making your reservation.
Appearances are arranged by reservation.
To make a reservation, call 1-866-582-6878 no later than 4:00 p.m.
PT the day before the appearance.
Shortly before the Court is ready to call
your matter, the Court Conference operator will contact the participant as
prearranged. All participants MUST be available when called. If
the participant is not available when called, the participant will be billed
for the call and the hearing may proceed in the participant's absence. The
Court may impose sanctions as set forth below.
Telephonic appearances are connected
directly with the courtroom's public address system and electronic recording
equipment so that a normal record is produced. To ensure a quality record,
the use of car phones, cellular phones, public telephone booths, or phones in
other public places is prohibited except in the most extreme
emergencies. Participants should be able to hear all parties without
difficulty or echo.
At the time of the hearing you may
initially be in the listening mode in which case you will be able to hear the
case before yours just as if you were in the courtroom. After your call is
connected to the courtroom, the Courtroom Deputy will call the case. The
Judge will ask for appearances and direct the manner in which the hearing
proceeds. Each time a participant speaks, he or she must identify himself or
herself for the record. The Court's teleconferencing system allows more than
one speaker to be heard so that the Judge can interrupt a speaker to ask a
question or redirect the discussion. When the Judge informs the participants
that the hearing is completed, the participants may disconnect and the next
case will be called.
Telephonic appearances by multiple
participants are only possible where there is compliance with every
procedural requirement. Sanctions may be imposed when there is any
deviation from the required procedures or where the court determines that a
person's conduct makes telephonic appearances inappropriate. Sanctions
may include dropping the matter from the calendar, continuing the hearing,
proceeding in the absence of an unavailable participant, a monetary sanction
of $100 or more, or a temporary or permanent prohibition against a person/firm
appearing telephonically.
When the Court conducts a telephone
conference on short notice and uses Court Conference, it may designate one
party to bear the entire cost of the conference call. The Court may on
occasion initiate calls to one or two persons directly from chambers without
use of a conference operator. In those instances, the Courtroom Deputy will
contact parties to inform them of the arrangements.
Because the Courtroom Deputy is usually
in Court prior to the initiation of any particular call, last minute changes
are generally impossible to handle and are discouraged.
Judge Hammond's Courtroom
Deputy is Ruby Bautista, 510-879-3529. Ruby_Bautista@canb.uscourts.gov.
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