All ex parte hearings are being conducted by telephonic appearance in Dept. 204, so when setting up CourtCall please use Dept. 204 as the location.

Pursuant to Probate Code §8223, a copy of the lost Will must be attached to the order admitting the lost Will to Probate.

The second Town Hall meeting on May 10, 2019 was well attended. A number of issues were raised and discussed, including the need to continue to address getting courtesy copies to the examiners. While this issue cannot be fully resolved at one meeting, the examiners have agreed that if they have to do an administrative continuance, the tentative ruling will alert the attorney if the examiner does not have a file stamped copy of the petition and/or the proposed order.

Also discussed at the Town Hall was the request to raise the hourly rate for professional fiduciaries and family members acting as fiduciaries.

The court is proposing changes to LRSF 14.78.A.6. The current proposal is to require two bids for any project estimated at $20,000 - $50,000 and three bids for projects estimated to cost more than $50,000. Attorneys will have the opportunity to post comments re the change when the proposed rules are posted. The proposed change would take effect on January 1, 2020.

Finally, a couple of procedural matters were clarified: if you are opening a new case and also have a related ex parte petition to file, you may file both petitions over the counter at the same time; examiners will not consider checking tentative rulings as administrative services; and attorneys will contact the Director if they are subject to serial notes.

No date has been set yet for the next Town Hall meeting, but the Director presented an annual update to BASF on June 4, 2019.

PROBATE TOWN HALL MEETING
When: May 10, 2019
Where: Room 617, Civic Center Courthouse
Time: 2 p.m. – 4 p.m.

Please submit your questions/topics for discussion to shilton@sftc.org no later than noon on Friday, May 3, 2019.

Thank you again to all who attended the luncheon on Wednesday, October 3, 2018. As an update and in response to the demand for the brochure, please see below.

PROBATE TOWN HALL MEETING
When: November 16, 2018
Where: Room 617, Civic Center Courthouse
Time: 2:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. – Please note, the time was changed due to a scheduling conflict.

BROCHURE DEVELOPED BY THE PROBATE CLERKS.

Ongoing budget constraints require changes to the informal process for obtaining an earlier hearing date (see SFLR 14.9). Any request for an earlier hearing date will have to be made by Ex Parte Petition to Advance a Hearing Date for a Judicial Officer’s determination of exigency.

The Court is aware of the additional steps created by requiring the filing of an ex parte petition and the necessary appearance at that hearing. Please be aware that we continue to evaluate court operations and resources. We will keep you apprised of any changes to this process.

NOTE: This announcement affects only matters on the Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday morning calendars.

Resignation of Warren Wong, Probate Referee

Mr. Wong is retiring as of June 30, 2018. Any unfinished matters he handled will be reassigned to a new Probate Referee. Counsel should file the Local Form, Request for Probate Referee (available online), and present a filed copy of that form, with a proposed order, to the clerk in Room 202.

Change in Procedure for Requesting a Continuance:

The new procedure applies:

• When petitions are set on the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday morning calendars;
• When the petition or status hearing is on one of the above calendars for the very first time.

If those two conditions are met, as of Monday, February 8, 2016, to request a continuance, please email probcontinue204@sftc.org. That email address will be monitored by the probate clerks, who will reply as appropriate.

Please remember, for the first assigned hearing date, a continuance can only be requested 7 or fewer calendar days before that hearing date.

If your matter has already been continued at least one time, please communicate directly with the examiner who continued it previously.

**NOTE: this procedure does not apply to the Tuesday afternoon guardianship calendar and the Thursday morning conservatorship calendar, or to the ex parte appearance calendar. The procedure for obtaining a continuance on those calendars is unchanged.

Proposed Orders:

When you lodge an order with File&Serve Express, the court does not receive a copy of that lodged order. You must continue to deliver a hard copy of the proposed order to Room 202, whether or not you also lodged the order.

Courtesy Copies:

Now that the front window is open all day except for lunch, the rolling file carts in the lobby of Room 202 have been removed. Please hand your copies directly to the clerk at the window or leave them in the tray marked “courtesy copies.”

We are experimenting with a new rule for courtesy copies. As of January 1, 2016, you do not have to provide a courtesy copy of any document filed on a Judicial Council form and any document that is 2 pages or less, including the verification. If the experiment is successful, we will add that language to the Local Rules.

**NOTE: this rule only applies to FILED documents, not proposed orders.

Highlights from the BASF Luncheon on October 2, 2015

E-filing for Probate Estate Cases:

Effective November 2, 2015, the court implemented mandatory efiling for all cases with a PES prefix. These cases are primarily decedent’s estates, but this prefix also includes petitions for deposit of minor’s funds, spousal property petitions and petitions to establish fact of birth, death, or marriage.

NOTEall Inventory and Appraisals will continue to be filed in person.

Attorneys are required to e-file, even if they are self-represented.

Status Hearings:

If your matter has a status hearing set to track the filing of a specific document (accounting, receipt, inventory and appraisal, etc.), that document must be filed 3 court days prior to the hearing date. If you are not going to be able to get the document on file, the reviewing examiner should be contacted no later than 3 court days prior to the hearing date to discuss whether the hearing can be continued or whether an appearance will be required.

The same rule applies when there is a hearing set for status of mediation. The examiner should be contacted no less than 3 court days prior to the hearing so that he or she can set the matter for an appearance if appropriate.

Late filings, calls and continuance requests double the work for the court and consume an unnecessarily high amount of court resources.

California Conservatorship Jurisdiction Act:

This act will take effect January 1, 2016. It allows a conservatorship established in another state to be registered in California when a Conservatee who lives elsewhere owns property in California; and it provides a process for the transfer of a conservatorship from one state to another state.

The full text of this lengthy act can be found online at http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201320140SB940

Calendar Settings:

We are currently setting petitions within 5 or 6 weeks of filing. This time frame is a significant reduction from last year at this time, when we were setting petitions about 12 weeks out.

Our new examiner starts March 19, 2015. We are really looking forward to having five full-time examiners again.

I will be presenting a free, informal lunchtime seminar on April 7, 2015 in Room 617 of the San Francisco Superior Court located at 400 McAllister Street from 12:00-1:00 p.m. to discuss tips for efficient practice in San Francisco. Topics to be covered are Status Hearings, Timing of Filing Responses to Examiner's Notes, and Courtesy Copies.

A reminder that the Judicial council adopted new forms effective 1/1/2015.

DE-142/DE111 Waiver of Bond - MANDATORY

DE-226 Spousal/Domestic Partner Property Order - MANDATORY

DE-265/CG-065 Order Confirming Sale of Real Property - MANDATORY

DE-305 Affidavit re Real Property of Small value ($50,000 or less) - MANDATORY

DE-315 Order Determining Succession to Real Property/

And Personal Property (Estate of $150,000 or Less) - MANDATORY

GC-150 Letters of Temporary Guardianship/Conservatorship Person/Estate - MANDATORY

GC-350 Letters of Conservatorship - MANDATORY

GC-400(B)/GC-405(B) Schedule B, Gains on Sales – Standard and Simplified Accounts - OPTIONAL

GC-400(D)/GC-405(D) Schedule D, Losses on Sales – Standard and Simplified Accounts – OPTIONAL

Please note -- To make sure that your orders and filings are timely processed, please be sure to use the new mandatory forms.

Highlights from the BASF Luncheon on October 3, 2014

Privacy Concerns:

All bank account numbers and social security numbers should be redacted in documents filed with the court. It is the duty of the parties and attorney to make sure those numbers are redacted (see CRC 1.20).

We are seeing more motions to seal due to failure to redact the numbers. In order for the court to grant those motions, it must make specific findings (see CRC 2.550).

The court cannot redact the numbers after the pleading has been filed nor can it extract single pages from filed documents. The entire document must be sealed and re-filed with the redacted numbers.

If the court does grant the motion, the order only affects the court’s server. If the document was e-filed, the attorney must also contact the e-filing service provider, alert them to the order and ask them to do whatever is necessary on their system to seal the document from public view.

Special Immigrant Juvenile Status Petitions:

It is estimated that as many as 250 juveniles per month arrive in San Mateo, San Francisco, and Alameda County.

Our court has seen a significant increase in guardianship petitions that include a related petition to find the minor eligible for Special Immigrant Juvenile Status. These petitions now total half of all guardianship petitions filed in San Francisco.

This very complex area of the law continues to be the topic of robust debate among probate lawyers, judges and practitioners.

New Policy on Status Hearings for Closing Estates:

Effective immediately, if the court sets a status hearing for failure to close an estate within the statutory guidelines, an appearance at that hearing is mandatory. Continuance requests will not be granted prior to the appearance on the assigned date.

Calendar Issues:

Due to reduced staff and the holiday season, the time delay between filing a petition and having it heard is increasing rapidly. We expect to be back to full staff by mid-March, at which time the delay should quickly return to just about 6 weeks. We appreciate your patience and understanding during these months.

Fees:

For services provided on or after January 1, 2015, the court will approve rates of up to $145 per hour for licensed private professional fiduciaries and up to $45 per hour for other fiduciaries.

Drop Off Ex Parte Petitions

Petitions:

After filing, courtesy copies of ex parte petitions should be left with the probate filing clerk in Room 103 along with the proposed order.

The ex parte petitions are delivered to the Assistant Director on Tuesday mornings, at which time they are distributed to the Examiners.

If you have a petition that requires expedited review, you may attach a Request for Expedited Review (blue sheet) to your courtesy copy. Attaching that sheet will ensure that your petition is delivered to the Assistant Director that same day. The blue sheet must show the urgent nature of the request.

If the court determines the subject of the petition is not appropriate for ex parte review, counsel will be notified and the matter will have to be re-filed as a fully noticed petition.

Review and Response:

Examiners review the ex parte petitions within two weeks of receiving them from the Assistant Director, time permitting. If the petition is in order, it will be sent to the judge for review and signing of the order.

If further information is required or the Examiner requests additional documentation, notes will be sent and the petitioner will be asked to file a response. The Examiner will keep the petition for two weeks for the filing of that response. If no response is received within 2 weeks, the petition is either returned to the attorney (if a self-addressed stamped envelope is provided) or put in the file boxes in the lobby of Room 202 (in the “pick-up”) folder. If the petition is not picked up within 2 weeks of being put in that folder, it is moved to the reject bin, which is cleared out periodically.

Stipulations and Orders:

This court does not favor combined Stipulation and Orders.

Please file the Stipulation separately. After it’s filed, an endorsed filed copy of the Stipulation and the Proposed Order shall be left with the filing clerk in Room 103.

Filing Requirements:

As announced at the BASF June 2014 lunch presentation, as of July 1, 2014, the clerks are only accepting petitions for filing that conform to California Rule of Court 2.111 and Local Rule 14.17.

California Rule of Court 2.111 requires the attorney to provide his or her bar number, contact information and to properly title the case. Remember, if you include your email address, you may get Examiner notes by email!

Common issues that have come up under this rule:

• • Failure to include attorney bar number;
  • Failure to properly name your case, e.g., using "Jane Doe vs. Ed Smith," instead of "Estate of John Doe."

Local Rule 14.17 states that the identification must show the name and capacity of the party for whom the attorney is appearing, e.g., John Jones, Executor. "Petitioner" or "Respondent" is not sufficient.

Common issues that have come up under this rule are:

• Identifying the client only as "Petitioner;"
• Identifying the client only as "Jane Doe."

Properly naming your case and identifying your client will be a great help to the filing clerks, the Examiners, and the judicial officers.

Welcome to the first in a series of monthly updates from the Court. Here you will find helpful information about topics trending in the Probate Department, policy changes and changes in the law. The subject of this month's update is appointment of probate referees and related notes of interest:

• • We still receive requests for appointment of probate referees in probate cases. Please remember that as of January 1, 2013, probate referees are assigned on the Order for Probate.
    • The local forms Request for Appointment of Probate Referee and Order Appointing Referee are only needed if a referee was not appointed in the Order for Probate or if a referee is needed for some other reason (the assigned referee retired, moved to a different county, you did not get a referee assigned when you established a conservatorship, but now realize you need one, etc.).
  • When sending the inventory to the referee, please verify that you have the current address for that referee. The referees welcome phone calls confirming their address.
  • Please provide a copy of the order appointing the referee to the referee when you mail the inventory to the referee.
  • Do NOT amend or revise the inventory once you have received it back from the referee, even if the only change is to Attachment One. Referees are audited and their records must match the filed inventories. The referees are happy to provide you with an amended inventory upon request.

Please check back next month for more updates from our office.