California Ex Parte Deadlines: Notice by 10:00 a.m. the Court Day Before

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.

Two deadlines govern an ex parte application and they are not the same deadline. The statewide rule fixes when you must give notice. Your county fixes when you must file. Miss the first and the court can refuse to hear you; miss the second and in at least one county the hearing is dropped automatically.

Your dates

The rule, before you enter anything

Notify all parties no later than 10:00 a.m. on the court day before the ex parte appearance. CRC 3.1203(a). That is a clock deadline, not a date deadline. It is not extended by mail or electronic service, and if the day before the hearing is not a court day the deadline moves to the preceding court day, never the following one.

Then there is the county filing deadline, which is usually the one that bites. Enter a date and pick your county.

How the math works

Step 1: the notice deadline

Notify all parties no later than 10:00 a.m. on the court day before the ex parte appearance (CRC 3.1203(a)). This is a clock deadline, not a date deadline, and the notice has to go to the party or to someone authorized to accept it for the party. In Newsom v. Superior Court (2020) 51 Cal.App.5th 1093, the Governor had no counsel in the case yet. An email sent a few minutes before 10:00 a.m. went to Department of Justice lawyers who were not authorized to accept service for him. The Governor was served only that afternoon, without the proposed order, and the court held he had not been properly notified.

Step 2: which court day

Count back one court day from the appearance, skipping Saturdays, Sundays and judicial holidays. If the day before the hearing is not a court day, the deadline moves to the preceding court day, not the following one. Rolling forward would push the deadline past the hearing and defeat the notice.

Step 3: no service extension applies

Neither CCP 1013 nor CCP 1010.6 extends the 10:00 a.m. deadline. Those sections extend periods that run from service of a document. The ex parte notice deadline is a fixed clock time imposed on the applicant, so there is nothing for them to extend. You cannot give notice at 2:00 p.m. and argue that mailing it bought you five days.

Step 4: the local filing deadline, which is the one that actually bites

CRC 3.1206 requires service on appearing parties at the first reasonable opportunity but sets no filing deadline. Every county sets its own, and they range from 10:00 a.m. the court day before to fifteen minutes after the hearing hour. Several counties will not hear an application at all without a reservation made in advance.

All 17 counties are laid out side by side, with the edition read and a link to each court's own published rules, on the county rule sheet.

What this calculator does not include

Department standing orders. In several counties the assigned department, not the county local rule, sets the operative filing deadline and reservation requirement, and some departments are stricter than their own county rule. Where a court publishes no rule on a point, this site says so rather than inferring one. Verify with your department. See scope for the full list of what is deliberately excluded.

It also does not tell you what goes in the application. This page computes when notice and filing are due; for the declaration of notice, the irreparable-harm showing, and what an ex parte application has to contain to survive, calcivilguide.com covers the substance of an ex parte application.

FAQ

What is the deadline to give notice of an ex parte application in California?

No later than 10:00 a.m. on the court day before the ex parte appearance, absent a showing of exceptional circumstances (California Rules of Court, rule 3.1203(a)). It is a clock deadline, not a date deadline: 10:01 a.m. is late. It is not extended by mail or electronic service, because it is a fixed time imposed on the applicant rather than a period running from service of a document.

What is the deadline to file an opposition to an ex parte application?

There is no statewide opposition deadline. Rule 3.1206 requires service on appearing parties at the first reasonable opportunity but sets no filing cutoff, so the deadline is whatever your county and department set. Los Angeles requires opposition e-filed by 8:30 a.m. the day of the hearing, Riverside by 8:00 a.m., and Contra Costa by 10:00 a.m. Most of the 17 counties publish no opposition deadline at all.

What is the LASC ex parte filing deadline?

Los Angeles requires the application and all supporting documents to be e-filed no later than 10:00 a.m. on the date before the hearing, under Local Rule 3.4(l); after a weekend or holiday, work to 10:00 a.m. on the preceding court day. In the Central District, a party exempt from e-filing files at the Stanley Mosk Courthouse first-floor window, fees paid, by 11:00 a.m., in any civil matter including unlawful detainer.

Can you give less than 24 hours notice for an ex parte application?

Only on a showing of exceptional circumstances, which the declaration regarding notice must explain (rule 3.1204(c)). Unlawful detainer is the one express exception: rule 3.1203(b) permits shorter notice if the notice given is reasonable. Notice also has to go to the party or to someone authorized to accept it for the party. In Newsom v. Superior Court (2020) 51 Cal.App.5th 1093, the Governor had no counsel in the case yet. An email sent a few minutes before 10:00 a.m. went to Department of Justice lawyers who were not authorized to accept service for him, and the Governor was not served until that afternoon. The court held he had not been properly notified.

What documents are required for a California ex parte application?

Five, under rule 3.1201: an application stating the relief requested, a declaration making the factual showing required by rule 3.1202(c), a declaration on personal knowledge of the notice given under rule 3.1204, a memorandum, and a proposed order. The rule says the request must include all five, so an application without a proposed order is incomplete on its face.

Counties that work differently

Los Angeles publishes both halves: 10:00 a.m. the court day before to file, 8:30 a.m. the morning of to oppose.
San Diego is noon the court day before, and failing to reserve means the application is not heard.
Santa Clara decides applications on the papers unless the court orders a hearing, so notice runs off the filing date rather than a hearing date.
San Francisco measures filing in hours before the hearing, not a clock time the day before.
Orange County publishes no county-wide filing deadline; your department's procedures document carries it.
San Joaquin runs a rolling 24 hours before the hearing time, and approval comes before filing rather than before being heard.
Stanislaus is the strictest: 10:00 a.m. the court day before, and the rule says a late filing means the hearing is dropped.
Santa Barbara publishes the same 10:00 a.m. and means the opposite by it: the hour is aspirational and a late filing risks a continuance rather than losing the hearing.
Contra Costa abolished set ex parte hours in October 2025. Papers are due at 3:00 p.m. the day before and there is no hearing unless the court orders one.
Fresno is the only county with two filing deadlines. The hearing period picks: 2:00 p.m. the court day before for a morning setting, 9:00 a.m. the day of for an afternoon one.
Sacramento closes the reservation at 10:00 a.m. and does not want the papers until 4:00 p.m., so the deadline that decides the application is the earlier one.
San Mateo measures filing from the hearing hour on the day of the hearing, 15 minutes out, not from the day before.
Riverside has no dedicated civil ex parte local rule at all, and the rule that is titled Ex Parte Orders is a juvenile rule.
Ventura asks for the reservation number in the caption of the application, and its noon filing hour is a preference in the rule that departments make firm.
Alameda takes reservations from the courtroom and not through the portal that handles every other motion reservation.
Kern pre-clears with the Clerk rather than reserving, and decides ex parte on the papers with no oral argument unless the judge exempts the matter.
San Bernardino requires the hearing to be reserved before the motion is e-filed, and publishes no lead time for making the reservation.