E.D. Cal.: Civil Standing Order and Trial Procedures: AI Provisions (Cases Assigned to Ma…
Magistrate Judge Chi Soo Kim · U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California
Verified October 1, 2026
- Citation
- Civil Standing Order and Trial Procedures: AI Provisions (Cases Assigned to Magistrate Judge Kim)
- Order date
- November 5, 2025
Summary
Virtual backgrounds, avatars, digital twins, or the use of any tool or artificial intelligence (AI) to alter an individual's appearance or voice are prohibited during remote Zoom appearances and Zoom settlement conferences.
What does the order require?
- Virtual backgrounds, avatars, digital twins, or the use of any tool or artificial intelligence (AI) to alter an individual's appearance or voice are prohibited during remote Zoom appearances and Zoom settlement conferences.
- Parties must provide written pre-trial notice of AI generated exhibits and illustrative aids.
- Such exhibits must also be identified on the exhibit lists submitted by the parties as AI Generated.
Practice areas: federal civil
What the order requires
Magistrate Judge Chi Soo Kim’s civil standing orders (E.D. Cal., eff. Oct. 1, 2026) and civil trial procedures address AI in two distinct contexts that most other chambers orders ignore: (1) AI alteration of appearance or voice in Zoom appearances and settlement conferences (banned), and (2) AI-generated exhibits or illustrative aids at trial (must be pre-noticed and identified on exhibit lists). The Zoom ban first took effect in the civil standing orders of November 5, 2025 and carries over unchanged into the revision effective October 1, 2026; the trial-procedures revision is effective October 14, 2025.
The deepfake-style ban is unusual: the order names “virtual backgrounds, avatars, digital twins” and any tool that alters appearance or voice during a remote Zoom appearance. The exhibit-disclosure requirement complements the deepfake ban by requiring pre-trial notice of AI-generated demonstratives, which forces counsel to flag AI-aided trial visuals before they appear in court.
The order does not impose a brief-side disclosure or certification regime, so AI use in drafting briefs is governed by Rule 11 alone in this chambers.
Primary source
Civil Standing Orders, effective October 1, 2026: https://www.caed.uscourts.gov/caednew/assets/File/CSK_Civil_StdOrder_FIN-2026-10-01.pdf
Civil Trial Procedures: https://www.caed.uscourts.gov/caednew/assets/File/CSK_Civil-Trial-Procedures_Website_FIN-Rev_2025-10-14.pdf
How this order changed
Dated record of this order's own lifecycle. Where it was amended or withdrawn, the badge shows its standing after that step.
- activeJudge Kim's civil trial procedures take effect with a requirement of written pre-trial notice of AI-generated exhibits and illustrative aids, identified as AI Generated on the exhibit lists. source
- Judge Kim's civil standing orders take effect with a ban on virtual backgrounds, avatars, digital twins, or any tool or AI that alters an individual's appearance or voice during remote Zoom appearances and Zoom settlement conferences.
- Revised civil standing orders take effect and take the November 5, 2025 version's place on Judge Kim's page; the AI language on remote appearances and Zoom settlement conferences is unchanged. source
Sanctions cases decided under this order
Cases in our tracker where this rule appears to have produced or directly informed the sanctions decision.
- That Xiong v. Minga Wofford , Jan 2026