Riverside Local Rules: E-Filing, Tentatives, and Remote Appearances

The Riverside Superior Court local rules are the county-specific procedures that sit on top of the statewide California Rules of Court, and they control how you file documents, pay fees, appear at hearings, and move a civil case toward resolution in Riverside County. The court applies them to attorneys and self-represented litigants alike, and the statewide rule wins whenever the two conflict.¹ The full text is posted at riverside.courts.ca.gov under “Local Rules,” and the Judicial Council maintains a statewide directory that links to every county’s version.²

How the Rules Are Organized

The rules are divided into ten numbered titles. Seven are active and three are reserved:³

Title 1: General
Title 3: Civil
Title 4: Criminal
Title 5: Family and Juvenile
Title 7: Probate
Title 8: Appeals
Title 10: Administration

Titles 2, 6, and 9 are marked “Reserved.” Amendments generally take effect on January 1 or July 1, so check the version date on the rule you are relying on.⁴

Who Must File Electronically

Local Rule 3118 requires attorneys to file electronically in all limited and unlimited civil cases, including unlawful detainers.⁴ That mandate tracks Code of Civil Procedure section 1010.6, which lets a court require e-filing by local rule but exempts self-represented litigants from any mandatory electronic filing requirement.⁵ Self-represented parties may e-file if they choose, or they can bring paper filings to any Riverside courthouse clerk’s office.⁶

E-filing goes through an approved Electronic Filing Service Provider. A document submitted before midnight on its due date is timely; anything the court receives after midnight is stamped on the next court day.⁶ Once the clerk accepts the submission, you get back a conformed copy showing the court’s stamp and filing date. If the filing is rejected for a defect, it loses that filing date, so build in time for a fix.

Filing Fees and Local Forms

Riverside charges more than most California counties because of a local courthouse construction surcharge.⁷ The first paper in an unlimited civil case (claims over $35,000) is $450 in Riverside, against a $435 statewide base.⁸ Smaller amounts apply to specific motions and other filings. You pay during the e-filing workflow or at the clerk’s window for paper.

Alongside the statewide Judicial Council forms, Riverside publishes its own forms with an “RI-” prefix, organized by case type on the court’s local forms page. RI-ADR003 covers a mediator’s acceptance or recusal in court-ordered mediation, and RI-MC010 is a generic document cover sheet.⁹ When you complete a local form, you need the exact case number, the assigned department, and the judicial officer’s name. The clerk routes documents by department, so a wrong department number delays processing.

Formatting of the papers themselves is a statewide matter. The Judicial Council has preempted local formatting rules through California Rules of Court 2.100 through 2.119, so Riverside cannot impose its own font, margin, footer, or first-page requirements on top of them.¹

Remote Appearances

Local Rule 3132 governs remote appearances at non-evidentiary hearings in general civil cases and actually encourages them. It applies to motions, demurrers, ex parte applications, case management conferences, status conferences, and trial readiness conferences. Choosing to appear remotely is treated as an automatic request, and you do not have to file a written request with the court.¹⁰

What you do have to do is tell the other parties before the hearing. That notice can go by phone, email, or text; no advance notice to the court is required. If the court decides remote won’t work for a particular matter, it will continue the hearing and order the parties to appear in person. Rule 3132 is scheduled to expire on January 1, 2027, at which point the court’s earlier rules (Local Rules 3131 and 3321) would resume unless new rules are adopted.¹⁰

The statewide layer is stricter in one respect. Under California Rule of Court 3.672, when you have at least three court days’ notice of a proceeding, you must file a Notice of Remote Appearance (form RA-010) with the court at least two court days before the hearing. Courts also keep discretion to require in-person appearances when it would help resolve the case or when the technology is inadequate, and recording a session without the judge’s written permission is prohibited.¹¹

Tentative Rulings and Oral Argument

For most law and motion hearings, Riverside judges post tentative rulings online by 3:00 p.m. the court day before the hearing, in line with California Rule of Court 3.1308.¹² Check the tentative rulings page that afternoon.

If you want to argue against the tentative, contact the judicial secretary for the assigned department no later than 4:00 p.m. on the court day before the hearing. Some departments set the cutoff at 4:30 p.m. You also have to notify every other party that you are requesting oral argument so they know to appear.¹² If nobody requests oral argument, the tentative typically becomes the court’s final order. Parties lose winnable motions here by treating an unfavorable tentative as final.

ADR and Case Management Duties

Riverside expects parties to try alternative dispute resolution before asking for a trial date, and to hold a settlement conference before trial. That expectation is built into Local Rule 3200.¹³ At least 30 days before the first case management conference, the parties have to meet and confer about whether the case is eligible for mandatory judicial arbitration or court-ordered mediation, whether they can stipulate to an ADR process, and a proposed completion date.¹⁴

General civil cases valued at $50,000 or less, including personal injury, business disputes, contracts, collections, and employment matters, are eligible for mandatory mediation or judicial arbitration under the Civil Action Mediation program.¹³

What Happens If You Don’t Follow the Rules

Non-compliance has teeth. Local Rule 3211 authorizes the court to impose sanctions for failure to comply with the rules governing ADR, including monetary penalties and procedural consequences.¹⁵ Short of formal sanctions, the clerk can reject a filing that doesn’t meet the statewide formatting standards, and the court can continue a hearing when a party ignores the remote appearance protocol or proceed without an absent party. Missing a case management conference or skipping the meet-and-confer on ADR can push a schedule out in ways that are hard to recover from, so treat the local rules as enforceable obligations rather than guidance.

1
Judicial Branch of California. California Rules of Court 2.100 – Form and Format of Papers Presented for Filing in the Trial Courts
2
Judicial Branch of California. Local Rules
3
Superior Court of California, County of Riverside. Local Rules
4
Superior Court of California, County of Riverside. Title 3 Civil
5
California Legislative Information. California Code of Civil Procedure 1010.6
6
Superior Court of California, County of Riverside. Civil eFiling
7
Superior Court of California, County of Riverside. Fee Schedule
8
Judicial Council of California. Statewide Civil Fee Schedule
9
Superior Court of California, County of Riverside. Local Forms
10
Superior Court of California, County of Riverside. Title 3 Civil – Section: Rule 3132
11
Judicial Branch of California. California Rules of Court 3.672 – Remote Proceedings
12
Judicial Branch of California. California Rules of Court 3.1308 – Tentative Rulings
13
Superior Court of California, County of Riverside. General Policies on ADR
14
Superior Court of California, County of Riverside. Title 3 Civil – Section: Rule 3218
15
Superior Court of California, County of Riverside. Local Rules – Section: Rule 3211