The California Discovery Cutoff: 30 Days Before Trial, and It Does Not Move
Not legal advice. Rules attested September 29, 2026; last full pass August 17, 2026. Verify every date yourself. Read the full disclaimer
Each verified rule carries its own date on the methodology page, all of them September 29, 2026: the date the maintaining attorney last attested it. The last full pass, signed off on August 17, 2026, checked the rules against their official sources (the code, the California Rules of Court, or for court holidays the Judicial Council calendar), with the exceptions listed on the about page. Rules still awaiting sign-off are listed on the methodology page as not yet verified. County local rules are paraphrased summaries. Individual department and judge standing orders are included only where the court publishes them and we have read the document, so assume your own department has requirements beyond what you see here. Verify every date against the operative code sections, your court's rules and your department's own order before relying on it. Using this site creates no attorney-client relationship.
Discovery must be completed 30 days before trial, and discovery motions must be heard 15 days before trial. Code of Civil Procedure section 2024.020 sets both. Expert discovery gets a little more room: completion 15 days before trial, motions heard 10 days before (section 2024.030).
The detail that catches even experienced litigators: these deadlines run from the date INITIALLY set for trial. Get a continuance and the cutoff does not budge. Section 2024.020(b) says a continuance does not reopen discovery. If you need discovery after a continuance, you need an agreement with the parties it affects, confirmed in writing (section 2024.060), or leave of court under section 2024.050. That motion needs a meet and confer declaration (section 2016.040), and the court weighs why the discovery is needed, whether you were diligent, whether it would delay trial or prejudice another party, and how far the new trial date is from the old one.
If the 30th or 15th day before trial falls on a weekend or court holiday, section 2016.060 extends the cutoff to the next court day closer to trial. A Saturday cutoff becomes the Monday, or the Tuesday when that Monday is a holiday. The calculator shows the extended date. Finishing earlier is always timely.
Completed means completed
For depositions, completed means taken, not just noticed. For written discovery, the practical rule is that responses must come due on or before the cutoff, which means your last day to serve interrogatories or document demands is at least 30 days before the cutoff, or roughly 60 days before trial, and earlier if you serve by mail, by overnight delivery, or electronically before January 1, 2027.
A motion to compel further responses has its own 45-day clock, running from service of the verified response, that can expire well before this cutoff (CCP sections 2030.300(c), 2031.310(c), 2033.290(c)). Miss it and the right to compel a further response is waived. The court then has no authority to rule on the motion except to deny it (Sexton v. Superior Court (1997) 58 Cal.App.4th 1403, 1410). calcivilguide.com covers what the 45 days runs from and what resets it.
Everything else counting down to trial
The cutoff is one deadline in a chain that all runs backward from the trial date: expert exchange demands (CCP section 2034.220), the expert exchange itself at 50 days out (section 2034.230), the last day an MSJ can be heard at 30 days out (section 437c), and the last day to serve a 998 offer. That one is 10 days out only for personal service (section 998(b)). Mailed within California it is 15 days out, because the mail extension of section 1013(a) applies to the 998 period (Lecuyer v. Sunset Trails Apts. (2004) 120 Cal.App.4th 920), and overnight delivery or e-service made before 2027 adds 2 court days. No published decision applies section 1013(c) or 1010.6 to a 998 offer; the calculator applies both on the reasoning of Lecuyer, which decided a mailed offer. Each deadline in the chain has its own weekend and holiday adjustments, taken from the same court holiday calendar every deadline here rolls against.
Our trial countdown calculator builds the whole chain from one input, your trial date, with a citation behind every date and your county's local trial-prep rules layered on top.
Your dates
FAQ
My trial got continued. Can I take one more deposition?
Not as of right, because a continuance does not reopen discovery (CCP 2024.020(b)). You need an agreement with the parties it affects, confirmed in a writing that states the new date (CCP 2024.060), or a court order under CCP 2024.050, which lets the court reopen discovery after a new trial date has been set. The motion needs a meet and confer declaration under CCP 2016.040, and the court weighs the need for the discovery, your diligence, any effect on the trial date or prejudice to other parties, and the time between the old and new trial dates (CCP 2024.050(b)).
Does the cutoff apply to expert depositions?
Experts have their own cutoff: 15 days before the initial trial date, with expert discovery motions heard by 10 days before (CCP 2024.030).
When is my actual last day to serve written discovery?
Count backward: responses must be due by the cutoff, so subtract the 30-day response period plus any service extension from the cutoff date. The calculator does this arithmetic for you, including weekend and holiday rolls. It counts from the cutoff as extended by CCP 2016.060 when the cutoff falls on a weekend or court holiday.
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Related: MSJ deadlines (81-day rule) · Trial countdown calculator · Deposition deadlines · Interrogatory response deadlines