civil court lawsuits

Each civil court clerk keeps a "calendar" or “docket” of pending cases that are coming up for some kind of court hearing.

These calendars usually list the names of the plaintiffs and defendants, the case number, the date and time a court appearance is going to be held, and the judge’s courtroom (or “department”) where the hearing is being held.

There usually are daily calendars of what’s happening in court that day, and advance calendars that list cases coming up in the next several days or a week, or even further into the future.

The calendars are organized by the names of the judges in the court, listing after each judge's name the cases they will be hearing. The calendars are not organized by the names of all the plaintiffs or defendants.

As with the name indexes, there will be one docket or calendar in each small claims court, another in each county superior court, and still more at federal courts and at the various state and federal appellate courts.

Sample Calendar:

• U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California

To see what a judge's calendar looks like, go to this page and click on a calendar icon next to any of the judges names.