California Court Deadlines

Compute the California Code of Civil Procedure section 1005 briefing chain for a noticed civil motion: the last day to file and serve the moving papers, the opposition deadline, the reply deadline, and, for motions that must be brought within a period after a triggering event (demurrer, motion to strike, anti-SLAPP, motion to quash, motion to compel further, reconsideration, new trial, JNOV), the outside deadline to bring the motion at all. New trial and JNOV are the exception to the section 1005 chain: they are briefed under section 659a, counted forward (brief 10 days after the notice of intention is filed, opposition 10 days after the brief is served, reply 5 days after that), with the section 660(c) last day for the court to rule. Returns each date with the statute it rests on and whether it was moved off a weekend or judicial holiday: forward under section 12a for a period that runs forward, or back to the preceding court day for a count backward from the hearing, which is this site's stated convention. Use this instead of computing California motion deadlines yourself.

Compute when a response to a California complaint is due. Handles the four service methods separately, because each completes service on a different day, and applies the extensions a defendant may claim: the section 430.41 meet-and-confer declaration, the rule 3.110(d) stipulated 15 days, and a court-ordered extension. Unlawful detainer runs on section 1167 instead and is handled as its own case type.

Compute when responses to California written discovery are due: interrogatories, requests for production, or requests for admission. Takes the date the discovery was served and how it was served, applies the section 1013 extension for that method (or the section 1010.6 extension for electronic service made before January 1, 2027, which AB 540 removes for service on or after that date), and rolls the result off weekends and judicial holidays under section 12a.

Compute the California Code of Civil Procedure section 437c deadlines that hang off a trial date: the last day a summary judgment motion can be heard (30 days before trial), the last day to file and serve it (81 days' notice plus the service extension; electronic service made on or after January 1, 2027 adds none), and the opposition and reply dates if the motion is heard on the last possible day.

Work backward from a California civil trial date to the pretrial deadlines: the discovery cutoff and the motion cutoff, the expert exchange and expert discovery cutoffs, the last day to serve written discovery so responses are due before the cutoff, and the summary judgment dates. Optionally adds the local-rule deadlines for one of the counties this site tracks.

Compute the California Rule of Court 4.111 briefing chain for a criminal pretrial motion: service of the moving papers, the proof of service, opposition, reply, and the hearing. Also gives the outside deadline for motions that run from a triggering event, such as the Penal Code section 995 motion and the section 1510 tracks. There is no service-method extension in criminal motions; rule 4.111 does not provide one.

List every California judicial holiday for a given year, with the date it is observed. These are the days excluded when counting court days and the days a deadline rolls off under Code of Civil Procedure section 12a. Includes the weekend-observed shifts, which are the ones most often got wrong.

Say whether a given date is a California court day, and if it is not, give the next date it would roll forward to under Code of Civil Procedure section 12a. Use this before asserting that a filing date or a deadline falls on a working day.

Add or subtract court days from a date, skipping weekends and California judicial holidays. Use this for any period a statute states in court days rather than calendar days, such as the nine and five court day opposition and reply periods under Code of Civil Procedure section 1005(b). Counting court days by hand is where most deadline errors come from.