Division 3. Filing and Service · Chapter 4. Miscellaneous · Last amended 2017 · Last verified July 29, 2026
(a) Papers not to be filed The following papers, whether offered separately or as attachments to other documents, may not be filed unless they are offered as relevant to the determination of an issue in a law and motion proceeding or other hearing or are ordered filed for good cause:
(1) Subpoena;
(2) Subpoena duces tecum;
(3) Deposition notice, and response;
(4) Notice to consumer or employee, and objection;
(5) Notice of intention to record testimony by audio or video tape;
(6) Notice of intention to take an oral deposition by telephone, videoconference, or other remote electronic means;
(7) Agreement to set or extend time for deposition, agreement to extend time for response to discovery requests, and notice of these agreements;
(8) Interrogatories, and responses or objections to interrogatories;
(9) Demand for production or inspection of documents, things, and places, and responses or objections to demand;
(10) Request for admissions, and responses or objections to request;
(11) Agreement for physical and mental examinations;
(12) Demand for delivery of medical reports, and response;
(13) Demand for exchange of expert witnesses;
(14) Demand for production of discoverable reports and writings of expert witnesses;
(15) List of expert witnesses whose opinion a party intends to offer in evidence at trial and declaration;
(16) Statement that a party does not presently intend to offer the testimony of any expert witness;
(17) Declaration for additional discovery;
(18) Stipulation to enlarge the scope of number of discovery requests from that specified by statute, and notice of the stipulation;
(19) Demand for bill of particulars or an accounting, and response;
(20) Request for statement of damages, and response, unless it is accompanied by a request to enter default and is the notice of special and general damages;
(21) Notice of deposit of jury fees;
(22) Notice to produce party, agent, or tangible things before a court, and response; and
(23) Offer to compromise, unless accompanied by an original proof of acceptance and a written judgment for the court’s signature and entry of judgment. (Subd (a) amended effective January 1, 2003; previously amended effective January 1, 2001.)
(b) Retaining originals of papers not filed
(1) Unless the paper served is a response, the party who serves a paper listed in (a) must retain the original with the original proof of service affixed. If served electronically under rule 2.251, the proof of electronic service must meet the requirements in rule 2.251(i).
(2) The original of a response must be served, and it must be retained by the person upon whom it is served.
(3) An original must be retained under (1) or (2) in the paper or electronic form in which it was created or received.
(4) All original papers must be retained until six months after final disposition of the case, unless the court on motion of any party and for good cause shown orders the original papers preserved for a longer period. (Subd (b) amended effective January 1, 2017; amended effective January 1, 2003, and January 1, 2007.)
(c) Papers defined As used in this rule, papers include printed forms furnished by the clerk, but do not include notices filed and served by the clerk.
Discovery generates a lot of paper, and most of it has no reason to sit in a court file. Rule 3.250 lists the categories that stay out of the clerk's office by default: subpoenas, deposition notices and responses, interrogatories, document demands, requests for admission, expert witness exchanges, offers to compromise, and more than a dozen other discovery-related papers. None of them may be filed unless a party offers one as relevant to a specific law and motion proceeding or other hearing, or the court orders it filed for good cause.
Keeping paper out of the file does not mean losing it. Whoever serves one of these papers — other than a response — has to retain the original, proof of service attached, in whatever form it was created or received, whether paper or electronic. The person served with a response has that same duty for the response itself. Either way, the original has to survive for six months after the case is finally over, longer if a court orders it kept for good cause.
The rule's definition of "papers" is broad enough to include printed forms the clerk hands out, but it carves out one thing: notices the clerk itself files and serves are not covered, so the limitation is aimed squarely at discovery paperwork moving between the parties, not at the court's own notices.
Rule 3.250 amended effective January 1, 2017; adopted as rule 201.5 effective July 1, 1987; previously amended effective January 1, 2001, and January 1, 2003; previously amended and renumbered as rule 3.250 effective January 1, 2007.