In Minnesota, there are nearly 300 district court judges who preside over matters in ten judicial districts. While the Minnesota Rules of Court provide attorneys with significant information applicable to court proceedings, each judge may have his or her individual preferences with respect to motion practice and courtroom conduct.

In an effort to assist attorneys who may be appearing before a judge for the first time, the MSBA Civil Litigation Section Governing Council provided all district court judges with a brief survey. The responses that we received are organized on the right by judicial district and then alphabetically by judge’s name. We hope you find these responses to be helpful in your preparation for district court appearances.

For information about this project or to report an error in any judicial directory listing, contact Kara Haro, MSBA staff liaison to the Civil Litigation Section.

Fourth Judicial District Judges | Courtroom Preferences

Sullivan, Rachna

Judge

Hennepin County

View state court bio

Contact with Chambers

• Preferred method to contact chambers: Email with a copy to the other side/attorney.

• To whom may attorneys direct scheduling/logistical questions? Law clerks.

• To whom may attorneys direct substantive questions? No substantive questions will be answered as the Judge cannot give legal advice.

Motion Practice

• Set forth your practices and procedures for scheduling motion hearings. Contact the Chambers and copy the other side. You can obtain a motion hearing prior to filing your motion papers but if the papers are not filed, the hearing will be canceled.

• Identify any type of motion for which you do not require a hearing. Discovery motions

• Do you accept telephone calls from attorneys to rule on discovery disputes that occur during depositions? No.

• How much time do you allot for motion hearings? One hour.

• Set forth your practices and procedures with respect to attending a hearing by telephone or video conference. Seek permission from the Court for a telephone conference and provide a short reaso1n in writing for the telephone conference.

• Set forth your practices and procedures with respect to discovery motions. I prefer a status conference before parties file a discovery motion.

• Set forth your practices and procedures with respect to stipulations of the parties, including stipulations for protective orders. Stipulations can be submitted along with a proposed order. I will not accept stipulations to waive ICMCs.

• Do you have any particular requests or procedures relating to requests to amend the scheduling order? Make this request in a timely manner as outlined in the scheduling order.

• Set forth your practices and procedures with respect to default proceedings. Must file a default scheduling request and other documents under the rules.

• Set forth your practices and procedures with respect to handling emergency motions. When possible provide notice to the other side. Send a courtesy copy to the Chambers.

• If your preferences for motion hearings by remote means differ from any of your earlier answers, please describe your preferences for remote video conference hearings.

• Do you want to receive paper courtesy copies of the parties' written submissions? If you do, set forth the number of courtesy copies and identify any document type you do not want to receive. Only for emergency motions.

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