California Civil Motion Deadlines
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.
Almost every civil motion in California runs on the same clock: 16 court days' notice before the hearing, opposition 9 court days before, reply 5 court days before (CCP § 1005(b)). What changes from motion to motion is the other deadline, which sets how long you had to bring the motion in the first place. For a demurrer, a motion to strike or a motion to quash, that deadline is the time allowed to respond to the complaint, so start with when your response to the complaint is due: it is 30 days from completion of service, which substituted service pushes to 40 from the mailing.
Your dates
A new trial motion, a JNOV, a motion to vacate or a motion to reconsider also moves the appeal clock under rule of court 8.108. See when a notice of appeal is due, which is the one deadline on this site no court can extend.
The deadline for a specific motion
The calculator above covers all 16 motions. These 8 have a trigger deadline of their own that can bar the motion before the hearing clock ever starts, so each one has a page stating the period, the statute and what the statute does not say on its face.
- Demurrer: Due 30 days after service of the complaint is complete, with no mail extension for a complaint served with the summons. A demurrer to an answer is due in 10 days.
- Anti-SLAPP special motion to strike: Within 60 days of service of the complaint, or later in the court's discretion.
- Motion to strike: Filed within the time allowed to respond to the pleading: 30 days for a complaint, 10 days for an answer.
- Motion to quash service of summons: On or before the last day to plead: 30 days after service of the summons is complete, with no mail extension.
- Motion to compel further responses: Responses were served but are inadequate. Hard 45-day outer limit from service of the verified responses.
- Motion for reconsideration: Within 10 days after service of written notice of entry of the order.
- Motion for new trial: Notice of intention within 15 days after notice of entry of judgment is served, and never later than 180 days after entry of judgment.
- Motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict: Timing is borrowed wholesale from § 659, including its bar on extension by order, stipulation, or § 1013.
The two clocks
A demurrer is due 30 days after service of the complaint. A motion to compel further responses dies 45 days after the responses were served. An anti-SLAPP motion has 60 days from service of the complaint. Those are trigger deadlines, and missing one is usually fatal regardless of when a hearing is available.
Separately, once you are ready to file, section 1005 controls how much notice the hearing requires. Both clocks must be satisfied, and they constrain the schedule from opposite ends. The trigger deadline is missed by waiting too long; the notice period is missed by setting a hearing too soon. The calculator runs both.
Service extensions run the wrong way here
On a response deadline, service by mail gives you more time. On a notice period it does the opposite: section 1005(b) adds its own service periods to the notice you must give, so the moving papers have to go out earlier. Serving by mail within California turns 16 court days into 16 court days plus 5 calendar days, before the weekend and holiday roll is applied. Fax and overnight delivery add 2 calendar days here, not the 2 court days section 1013 gives on a response, because section 1005(b) says section 1013 does not apply to a notice of motion. The roll uses the court holiday calendar this site rolls every deadline against, which is where a notice period run across February or late November loses days you may not have counted.
Which side are you on?
A section 1005 chain has four dates, and only two of them are ever yours. A moving party is responsible for the moving papers and the reply. A responding party is responsible for the opposition alone. The calculator asks which side you are on and marks your rows accordingly, since calendaring the opposing party's deadline is a common way to miss your own.
A responding party can also enter the date of the underlying event, and the calculator will report whether the motion against you was brought in time. Where the verified responses were served personally, a motion to compel further responses served and filed on day 46 is untimely no matter how good it is.
Motions covered
Challenges to the pleadings
| Motion | Timing | Authority |
|---|---|---|
| Demurrer | 30 calendar days after completion of service of the summons and complaint, with no service extension; 30 calendar days after service of the amended complaint or cross-complaint, plus service extensions; 10 calendar days after service of the answer, plus service extensions | CCP § 430.40(a); CCP § 471.5(a); CCP § 430.40(b) |
| Motion to strike | 30 calendar days after completion of service of the summons and complaint, with no service extension; 30 calendar days after service of the amended complaint or cross-complaint, plus service extensions; 10 calendar days after service of the answer, plus service extensions | CCP §§ 435, 435.5; CCP § 471.5(a); CCP § 435(b)(1) |
| Motion for judgment on the pleadings | Standard § 1005 notice: 16 court days before the hearing | CCP § 438 |
| Motion to quash service of summons | 30 calendar days after completion of service of the summons, with no service extension | CCP § 418.10(a) |
| Anti-SLAPP special motion to strike | 60 calendar days after completion of service of the summons and complaint, with no service extension; 60 calendar days after service of the amended complaint, plus service extensions | CCP § 425.16(f) |
Discovery motions
| Motion | Timing | Authority |
|---|---|---|
| Motion to compel further responses | 45 calendar days after service of the verified responses, plus service extensions | CCP §§ 2030.300(c), 2031.310(c), 2033.290(c) |
| Motion to compel initial responses | Standard § 1005 notice: 16 court days before the hearing | CCP §§ 2030.290, 2031.300 |
| Motion for protective order | Standard § 1005 notice: 16 court days before the hearing | CCP §§ 2030.090, 2031.060, 2025.420 |
Dispositive motions
| Motion | Timing | Authority |
|---|---|---|
| Motion for summary judgment / adjudication | 81 days' notice. Sections 1005 and 1013 do not apply, except § 1005(c) on how opposition and reply papers are served, because § 437c supplies its own notice period and extensions. | CCP § 437c |
Trial management
| Motion | Timing | Authority |
|---|---|---|
| Motion for trial preference | Standard § 1005 notice: 16 court days before the hearing | CCP §§ 36, 36.5 |
| Motion to reopen discovery | Standard § 1005 notice: 16 court days before the hearing | CCP § 2024.050 |
| Motion to compel arbitration | Standard § 1005 notice: 16 court days before the hearing | CCP § 1281.2 |
| Ex parte application Ex parte calculator, 17 counties → | Notice to all parties by 10:00 a.m. the court day before the hearing, absent exceptional circumstances. | CRC rule 3.1203(a) |
Post-ruling and post-trial
| Motion | Timing | Authority |
|---|---|---|
| Motion for reconsideration | 10 calendar days after service of written notice of entry of the order, plus service extensions | CCP § 1008(a) |
| Motion for new trial | 15 calendar days after the first service of notice of entry of judgment, by the clerk under § 664.5 or by any party, with no service extension, and never later than 180 days after entry of judgment | CCP § 659(a) |
| Motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict | 15 calendar days after the first service of notice of entry of judgment, by the clerk under § 664.5 or by any party, with no service extension, and never later than 180 days after entry of judgment | CCP §§ 629, 659 |
Where the authority is unsettled
Most of what is above is settled statute. These are the places it is not, stated with which way this calculator goes:
- Backward roll direction on weekends and holidays. Rolling earlier is safer for the user but is contrary to the literal text of § 12a(a) and rule 1.10(b). THIS CALCULATOR ROLLS EARLIER and labels it a convention, not a holding.
- Does § 1013 extend the § 1008(a) 10-day reconsideration period? Literal reading says yes; no case holds it. THIS CALCULATOR APPLIES IT.
- Whether to model the § 2033.280 deemed-admissions motion at all, given it is not a motion to compel and has no deadline. NOT MODELED.
What this does not cover
- Department standing orders. Many judges impose their own reservation, page-limit and courtesy-copy requirements that are not in the code or the local rules.
- Reservation availability. In busy departments the first open hearing date, not the statute, is what actually determines your schedule.
- Meet-and-confer extensions. CCP section 430.41 can push a demurrer deadline out 30 days, and the calculator does not assume you took it.
- Summary judgment, which runs on its own clock. Use the MSJ calculator instead.
When the 16 court days under section 1005 will not get you a hearing in time, ex parte is the route, and it runs on a different rule entirely. The ex parte calculator computes the notice hour and your county's filing deadline; calcivilguide.com explains what the application itself has to show.
Related: Response to a complaint · MSJ deadlines · Ex parte deadlines · Discovery cutoff · Trial countdown calculator