Department 8 Tentative Rulings

Thank you for visiting the Superior Court's Tentative Ruling page for Department 8, Complex Civil Litigation, Judge Elizabeth C. Peterson, presiding. Department 8 is located in the Downtown Superior Courthouse at 191 North First Street in San Jose.

Complex Civil Litigation law and motion matters are heard Wednesdays at 1:30 p.m. or as specially set by the Court. Tentative rulings issued by Department 8 will be accessible on this page after 2:00 p.m. on the court day preceding the scheduled hearing.

To access tentative rulings online, click the link below that matches your hearing date.
If your hearing is not on a regularly scheduled day, please choose the Special Set Day link.

(Please note: Tentative rulings remain accessible until replaced by successive rulings.)

If you do not have access to the Internet during the time period when the rulings are posted and you wish to obtain your tentative ruling, please call (408) 882-2515 for assistance.

If you are the prevailing party, prepare a formal order by copying the text from the posted tentative ruling and pasting it into a pleading template. Pursuant to the Rules of Court, you must forward the proposed order to counsel for review before sending it to the Court for execution and filing.

Tentative rulings will become Orders of the Court unless contested. See Rules 3.1308(a)(1) and 3.1312, California Rules of Court.

Contesting a ruling

To request an appearance to contest a tentative ruling, you must notify the Court by phone or email before 4:00 p.m. on the court day immediately preceding the scheduled hearing.

  • By phone: Call (408) 808-2180 and leave a message when prompted at the end of the recorded greeting.

  • By email: Send an email to: Department8@scscourt.org

Please state your name, case name, case number, and contact number or email address.  Please identify the specific portion or portions of the tentative ruling that you wish to address. 

You must also notify opposing counsel.

You do not need to call or leave a message if you are not contesting the ruling.

Parties who do not call to contest the ruling before 4:00 p.m. on the court day before the hearing or appear without notice to the Court and opposing counsel will not be heard. If no party has requested oral argument, appearances are not required and the tentative ruling will be adopted as the ruling of the Court.