Summary Judgment Deadlines in California: The 2025 Rules

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.

The Legislature rewrote summary judgment timing effective January 1, 2025, and a lot of calendars have not caught up. The notice period is now 81 days, not 75. Oppositions are due 20 days before the hearing, replies 11 days before. The motion still must be heard no later than 30 days before trial unless the court orders otherwise (CCP section 437c).

Work backward from a trial date and the math gets tight fast. A motion heard at the last possible moment, 30 days before trial, must be filed and served at least 81 days before that hearing. That is 111 days before trial with personal service, and more with any other method. If you wait for the discovery you "need" before moving, you can discover the window has already closed.

The service extension trap

Here is the part that burns people: the general extension statutes do not apply. CCP section 437c(b)(6) expressly excludes sections 1005 and 1013. Instead, 437c has its own built-in extensions: mail within California adds 5 days, out-of-state mail 10, international 20, and overnight or fax adds 2 court days.

One piece of section 1005 survives. Subdivision (b)(6) excludes 1005 and 1013 "[e]xcept for subdivision (c) of Section 1005 relating to the method of service of opposition and reply papers." So 1005(c) still governs how those papers are served, which means they go out by personal delivery, fax, express mail, or another method calculated to arrive by the close of the next business day after filing. It does not change any of the day counts below. It changes how you serve.

Electronic service is its own story, and it changes on January 1, 2027. Through December 31, 2026, section 437c says nothing about it, and the Court of Appeal held in Cole v. Superior Court (2022) 87 Cal.App.5th 84 that the 2-court-day e-service extension in section 1010.6 applies, because 437c excludes only 1005 and 1013. An MSJ e-served in 2026 therefore needs 81 days plus 2 court days of notice. Those 2 court days are counted against the court holiday calendar, so an e-served motion noticed across a closure needs its papers out earlier still.

From January 1, 2027, e-service adds nothing. AB 540 (Stats. 2026, ch. 263) takes the extension out of section 1010.6 and writes "excluding electronic service" into the overnight-delivery clause of 437c(a)(2), so an MSJ e-served in 2027 needs the plain 81 days. Watch the changeover: when 81 days before the hearing lands in early January 2027, e-service made in late December 2026 is still held to the old rule, and the calculator flags the earlier date.

Your dates

FAQ

Can I get around the 30-days-before-trial hearing cutoff?

Only with a court order for good cause. Do not count on it. Reserve your hearing date early; in busy departments the reservation, not the statute, is the real constraint.

Do the opposition and reply deadlines get service extensions?

No. They are counted backward from the hearing date, and backward-counted deadlines landing on a weekend or holiday move to the preceding court day, not the next one.

Does a trial continuance give me a new MSJ window?

Sometimes, but do not assume. The hearing cutoff runs from the trial date, while discovery cutoffs stay keyed to the initial trial date. These move independently. Check both before promising a client anything.

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