Notice of Lodging in California: Contents, Format, and Delivery

A notice of lodging in California is the document you file with the clerk to tell the court and every other party what materials you’ve delivered to the judge for temporary review. The notice itself becomes a permanent part of the case record. The materials it accompanies do not; they sit with the judge for a specific purpose and are later returned or deleted.

That split is the whole point of lodging. Filed documents (complaints, motions, oppositions) live in the public case file forever. Lodged materials are handed up for the judge’s use and then leave the file. Paper originals get mailed back to you; electronic copies can be permanently deleted after the clerk sends you notice.¹ The notice bridges the two: filed and permanent, pointing at something lodged and temporary.

When Lodging Is Required

Four situations in California civil practice commonly call for a notice of lodging.

Proposed Orders After a Ruling

The prevailing party generally drafts the proposed order reflecting the judge’s ruling. You serve it on the other parties within five days of the ruling for their approval. After the approval window closes, you transmit the proposed order to the court, along with a summary of any objections or a statement that none were received. That transmittal is a lodging. The order sits with the judge until it’s signed and entered. If your motion was unopposed and you already submitted a proposed order with your moving papers, this procedure doesn’t apply unless the court says otherwise.²

Non-California Legal Authorities

If you cite an authority other than a California case, statute, constitutional provision, or state or local rule, the judge may require you to lodge a copy of that authority with your papers. The requirement is discretionary rather than automatic.³ Any other party can also request a copy of those authorities from you, and you must provide it promptly.

Transcripts for Deposition Recordings

Before you can play an electronic sound or video recording of deposition testimony at a hearing or trial, you must lodge a transcript of that testimony with the court. When the recording plays, you identify on the record the page and line numbers where the testimony appears.⁴

Records Being Considered for Sealing

When you ask the court to seal a record, you lodge the unredacted version conditionally under seal while the sealing motion is pending. This variant has its own procedure, covered below.

What Goes in the Notice

The notice of lodging is a separate document from the materials themselves. It’s the cover paper that tells the court and the other side what has been delivered to the judge. It gets filed with the clerk, which creates a permanent record that the lodging happened.

The notice should include:

The standard caption with case name, case number, and department.
The title “Notice of Lodging” in the heading.
The date, time, and department of the hearing or trial the materials relate to.
An itemized list of every document being lodged, with descriptive titles and any exhibit numbers or letters you’ve assigned.

You serve the notice on all other parties, file it with the clerk, and deliver the actual materials to the court. A proof of service accompanies the filing.

Formatting the Lodged Materials

The materials themselves must follow the exhibit-formatting rules in Rule 3.1110. Skipping these can mean the court disregards what you submitted.

For paper exhibits, separate each one with a hard 8½-by-11-inch sheet with a tab extending below the page showing the exhibit designation. Include an index listing every exhibit, its description, and its tab designation. Pages from a single deposition all go under one tab; don’t split the same deposition across multiple exhibits.⁵

For electronic documents, especially at the appellate level, files must be text-searchable PDFs. If you’re working from paper originals, use optical character recognition to make the scan searchable. Electronic bookmarks are also required, with a bookmark for every heading, subheading, exhibit, attachment, and major component. Each bookmark should briefly describe what it links to, such as “Exhibit A, Purchase Agreement dated 3/15/25,” rather than just “Exhibit A.”⁶

Delivering the Materials to the Court

Once the notice is filed, you still have to get the materials themselves to the judge.

Paper

Law and motion papers are filed in the clerk’s office unless a local rule directs otherwise. For lodged paper materials, include a stamped, addressed envelope with sufficient postage so the clerk can mail your originals back after the judge is done.¹ Forget the envelope and you may not get your originals back. It’s the single most common logistical slip with lodging.

Electronic

For electronically lodged materials, specify the electronic address where the clerk can send a deletion notice once the court no longer needs the documents.¹ Proposed orders submitted electronically after a ruling follow a slightly different path: submit a PDF version attached to a cover sheet form, and also send an editable word-processing version to the email address the court designates. The editable version lets the judge revise the order before signing.²

Check the Local Rules

Where you physically or electronically deliver lodged documents varies by courthouse. Some courts want lodged materials sent directly to the department hearing the matter. Others route them through a specific clerk’s window or a designated division depending on case type. Check the local rules for the superior court handling your case before assuming the statewide rules cover everything.

Lodging Under Seal

If you’re asking the court to seal a record, the process is more layered because you’re handling both a public version and a confidential version of the same material.

You file a redacted (public) version of your papers and lodge the complete, unredacted version conditionally under seal. The cover of the redacted version must state “Public — Redacts materials from conditionally sealed record.” The unredacted version must state “May Not Be Examined Without Court Order — Contains material from conditionally sealed record.”⁷

If the material is on paper, place it in a sealed envelope or container labeled “CONDITIONALLY UNDER SEAL.” Attach a cover sheet with the caption and a statement that the record is subject to your sealing motion. The clerk stamps the cover sheet with the date on receipt but does not file the material; it stays lodged unless the court orders it filed.⁷

Service also splits along access lines. Parties who already have access to the confidential material receive both versions. Everyone else gets only the redacted version.⁷

If the court denies your motion to seal, you have 10 days to notify the court that you’re willing to have the lodged record filed unsealed. Send that notice and the clerk unseals and files the material. Stay silent past 10 days and the clerk returns your paper documents or permanently deletes the electronic ones.⁷ The default outcome is that your material leaves the case entirely, so if you wanted the judge to consider it at all, you have to act inside that window.

What Happens to Lodged Materials Later

Lodged materials are temporary by design. After the judge resolves the matter, the clerk can return paper documents using the stamped envelope you provided. Electronic materials can be permanently deleted after the clerk sends a deletion notice to the address you specified.¹ The rule says the clerk “may” do this, so timing varies. Don’t assume lodged material stays accessible indefinitely. If you might need it later (for an appeal, for instance), keep your own copies.

Timing

The California Rules of Court do not set a standalone deadline for filing a notice of lodging. Timing depends on what you’re lodging and why. If the materials support a motion, moving papers must generally be served and filed at least 16 court days before the hearing, and the notice of lodging and lodged materials should go out on the same schedule.

Proposed orders after a ruling run on their own clock: five days to serve the drafted order on the other parties, then a prompt transmittal to the court once the approval window closes. Miss the window and another party can draft the proposed order instead, which lets them frame the language of the court’s ruling.²

1
Judicial Branch of California. Rule 3.1302 Place and Manner of Filing
2
Judicial Branch of California. Rule 3.1312 Preparation and Submission of Proposed Order
3
Judicial Branch of California. Rule 3.1113 Memorandum
4
Judicial Branch of California. Rule 2.1040 Electronic Recordings Presented or Offered Into Evidence
5
Judicial Branch of California. Rule 3.1110 General Format
6
Judicial Branch of California. Rule 8.74 Format of Electronic Documents
7
Judicial Branch of California. Rule 2.551 Procedures for Filing Records Under Seal