The California Discovery Cutoff: 30 Days Before Trial, and It Does Not Move
Not legal advice. Rules checked against the code on August 20, 2026. Verify every date yourself. Read the full disclaimer
Core CCP rules were checked against Westlaw (via CoCounsel legal research) on August 20, 2026. County local rules are paraphrased summaries; individual department standing orders are NOT included. Verify every date against the operative code sections and your court’s rules 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 must bring a motion under section 2024.050 and convince the court there is good cause. Courts deny these all the time.
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 or electronically.
A motion to compel further responses has its own 45-day clock that can expire well before this cutoff, and it is jurisdictional: miss it and the court cannot hear the motion at all. 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 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 for a 998 offer at 10 days out (section 998). Each 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. You need a stipulation or a section 2024.050 motion showing good cause and diligence. File it early; the motion itself must be heard before the (unchanged) motion cutoff unless the court orders otherwise.
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.
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.
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Related: MSJ deadlines (81-day rule) · Trial countdown calculator · Deposition deadlines · Interrogatory response deadlines