California procedural guides

Plain-English guides to the California Code of Civil Procedure, each one tied to the rules it relies on. Every rule named in a guide has its own page with the official text.

• Responding to a California complaint: when the 30 days really starts, and what a demurrer does to itCalifornia gives 30 days to respond — but the clock starts when service is complete, and substituted service isn't complete until the 10th day after mailing. Here's the arithmetic.
• Setting aside a California default: four different routes, four different deadlinesCalifornia doesn't have one motion to vacate. It has discretionary relief, mandatory attorney-fault relief, the lack-of-actual-notice route, and void judgments — each with its own clock.
• Responding to a California eviction: the 10-day clock that isn't 10 daysCCP 1167 gives an unlawful detainer defendant 10 days to respond, excluding weekends and judicial holidays — and 5 more court days if service was by mail. Older pages still say five days.
• Missing a California discovery deadline: the automatic waiver, and how to get it backA late discovery response in California waives every objection — including privilege and work product. The Discovery Act also supplies a specific way to undo that, on two conditions.
• California's 45-day motion-to-compel deadline: when it applies, and when it doesn'tCalifornia gives 45 days to move for further discovery responses, and blowing it waives the right entirely. But the 45 days only runs against a served, verified response.
• California summary judgment: the 81/20/11 schedule and the traps around itCCP 437c anchors every summary-judgment date to the hearing: 81 days' notice, opposition 20 days before, reply 11 days before — and the hearing itself no later than 30 days before trial.
• The California demurrer: the meet-and-confer you have to do first, and the 30 days it can buy youCCP 430.41 requires a meet and confer at least 5 days before the responsive pleading is due — and grants an automatic 30-day extension if it doesn't happen in time.
• California's five-year rule: the dismissal deadline that cannot be excusedCCP 583.310 requires an action to be brought to trial within five years. CCP 583.360 makes dismissal mandatory and says the requirement is not subject to extension, excuse, or exception.
• California's anti-SLAPP motion: 60 days to file, and discovery stops the moment you doCCP 425.16 gives a defendant 60 days from service of the complaint to file a special motion to strike. Filing it stays all discovery and, if it succeeds, shifts fees automatically.
• Amending a California complaint: the one free amendment, and the window most people missCCP 472 lets a party amend once without leave — and the window doesn't close when a demurrer is filed. It closes on the date the opposition to that demurrer is due.
• California TROs and preliminary injunctions: 15 days to the hearing, and a certification about noticeCCP 527 lets a TRO issue without notice only on a sworn certification about what notice was attempted — and the order to show cause must be heard within 15 days, or 22 for good cause.
• California requests for admission: 35 without a declaration, and the one discovery device that can end a caseCCP 2033 caps requests for admission at 35 without a supporting declaration, requires a motion before anything is deemed admitted, and makes a wrong denial payable in attorney's fees.
• California depositions: seven hours, six exceptions, and a 60-day clock most people missCCP 2025 caps most California depositions at seven hours — but not employment cases, expert depositions or PMK depositions. Objections to the notice are due three days out, and a motion to compel an answer is due 60 days after the record is complete.
• The California expert witness exchange: 70 days, 50 days, 20 days — and exclusion if you get it wrongCalifornia's expert exchange under CCP 2034 happens only if someone demands it, runs on deadlines counted backward from trial, and ends in mandatory exclusion for a party who fails to comply.
• Motion for reconsideration in California: 10 days, an affidavit, and something genuinely newCCP 1008 gives 10 days from notice of entry to ask a California judge to reconsider, requires new or different facts, circumstances or law, and says no court may consider a reconsideration motion made any other way.
• Dismissing a California case — and keeping the power to enforce the settlementCCP 581 lets a plaintiff dismiss any time before trial actually commences. CCP 664.6, rewritten operative January 1, 2025, is how a court keeps jurisdiction to enforce the settlement after the case is gone.
• California interrogatories: 35 special, unlimited form, no subparts, and a late answer that waives privilegeCCP 2030 caps specially prepared interrogatories at 35 without a declaration, bars subparts and compound questions outright, and makes a late response waive every objection including privilege.
• California inspection demands: three ways to respond, a diligent-search affirmation, and documents labelled by request numberCCP 2031 gives a responding party exactly three options per demand, requires an inability to comply to affirm a diligent search and say what happened to the documents, and requires production labelled to the request number.
• The California discovery cutoff: 30 days, 15 for motions, and a continuance that changes nothingCCP 2024.020 closes California discovery 30 days before the date initially set for trial and discovery motions 15 days before — and a continuance of the trial does not reopen either.
• Moving to quash service in California: file before you plead, and keep 10 days for the writCCP 418.10 lets a California defendant challenge jurisdiction on or before the last day to plead, extends the pleading deadline to 15 days after denial, and preserves a 10-day writ petition — but only before pleading.
• The California 998 offer: 10 days before trial, 30 days to accept, and expert fees on the tableCCP 998 lets either side make a written settlement offer up to 10 days before trial. Beat it and the other side pays your post-offer costs — and, in the court's discretion, your expert witness fees.
• Enforcing a California money judgment: the writ, the abstract, and the 180-day ruleA California money judgment is enforced by a writ of execution issued by the clerk, one per county, with a 180-day wait before a second writ — and a recorded abstract creates a 10-year lien on real property.
• California wage garnishment: 20 percent, or 40 percent of what clears 48 hours' minimum wageCalifornia's Wage Garnishment Law caps withholding at the lesser of 20% of disposable earnings or 40% of the amount above 48 times the minimum wage — and uses the local minimum wage where it is higher.
• Renewing a California judgment: 10 years, one shot for some debts, and interest that halved in 2023A California money judgment dies at 10 years unless renewed. Since 2023, medical and personal-debt judgments under set thresholds may be renewed only once, for five years, and accrue interest at 5 percent rather than 10.
• California exemptions: the homestead floor of $300,000, and the ones you lose by not claimingCalifornia's homestead exemption is the greater of the countywide median home price capped at $600,000 or $300,000, adjusted annually for inflation — and most other exemptions are waived unless claimed in time.
• The California 170.6 challenge: one per side, no reasons, and a deadline that depends on the assignmentCCP 170.6 lets a party disqualify a California judge once, without giving reasons — 15 days after an all-purpose civil assignment, 5 days before a known trial date, and never after trial begins.
• The California motion to strike: meet and confer five days out, or take the automatic 30 daysCCP 435 lets a party move to strike within the time to respond, CCP 435.5 requires a meet and confer five days before it is due, and failing to confer earns an automatic 30-day extension.
• California cross-complaints: the one you must file with your answer, and the one you can file laterA related cause of action against the plaintiff must be pleaded in a cross-complaint filed with the answer or it is lost — but CCP 426.50 lets a party who acted in good faith cure the omission at any time.
• California venue: move to transfer when you respond, or the case stays where it was filedCCP 396b lets a wrongly venued California case be tried where it was filed unless the defendant moves to transfer at the time of responding — and the fees for a bad venue fight fall on the attorney, not the client.
• California sanctions: bad faith under 128.5, the safe harbour under 128.7, and the discovery carve-outCCP 128.5 reaches bad-faith tactics that are frivolous or solely intended to delay; CCP 128.7 reaches papers that fail a certification test but gives a 21-day safe harbour. Neither applies to discovery.
• Staying a California judgment on appeal: the appeal stays most things, but not a money judgmentPerfecting a California appeal stays trial court proceedings under CCP 916 — but CCP 917.1 excludes money judgments unless an undertaking is given, and the trial court's own stay power runs only 10 days past the appeal deadline.
• The California vexatious litigant statute: five losses in seven years, security, and a prefiling orderCCP 391 defines a vexatious litigant by five self-represented losses in seven years, repeated relitigation, or repeated unmeritorious filings — and CCP 391.7 lets the court bar new filings without the presiding judge's leave.
• Compelling arbitration in California: 10 days to respond, four defences, and a 30-day fee deadline that forfeits the whole clauseCCP 1281.2 requires a California court to order arbitration unless one of four things is shown — and CCP 1281.98 makes a drafting party who pays arbitration fees more than 30 days late waive its right to arbitrate at all.
• California attachment: contract claims over $500, a noticed hearing, and an undertaking before the writCCP 483.010 limits attachment to contract claims for a fixed or readily ascertainable amount of at least $500. A right to attach order requires a noticed hearing, probable validity, and an undertaking.
• Moving for summary judgment in California: 60 days in, 81 days' notice, heard 30 days before trialCCP 437c lets a party move for summary judgment 60 days after a general appearance, on 81 days' notice, heard no later than 30 days before trial — and a defective separate statement alone can sink the motion.
• Serving a California complaint: 60 days to serve, and four methods that complete on different daysCalifornia Rule of Court 3.110(b) requires service and proof of service within 60 days of filing — and the four methods under CCP 415.10 to 415.50 are each deemed complete on a different date.

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