What this site does not calculate

A tool that does not say where it stops is worse than one with a smaller scope. These are the edges. Some are deliberate limits; one is a known limitation of a calculator that ships, and it is called out where it can actually hurt you.

A limitation inside a shipped calculator

Your opposition to a summary judgment motion, counted from the hearing date on the notice. The MSJ calculator takes only a trial date, and labels its opposition row “if hearing on last possible day.” If the hearing was set earlier than the CCP § 437c(a)(3) cutoff, your real opposition date is earlier than the one shown. Count that one from the notice.

This warning also appears attached to the opposition row itself in the MSJ calculator, because someone calendaring off that row needs to see it there rather than here.

Things no calculator can know

• Department standing orders. Reservation requirements, page limits, courtesy copies. Not in the code, not in the local rules, enforced anyway.
• Whether a hearing date is actually available. In a busy department the reservation system, not the statute, sets your schedule.
• Emergency closures. Individual superior courts may close by order under Government Code § 68115 — see Rowan v. Kirkpatrick (2020) 54 Cal.App.5th 289. Unpredictable, and not in the holiday dataset.

Extensions the calculators do not assume you took

• Meet-and-confer extensions. CCP § 430.41 can push a demurrer out 30 days and § 435.5 does the same for a motion to strike. Both are automatic on filing a declaration — but the calculator cannot know whether you filed one, so it shows the unextended date.
• Written agreements to extend. The 45-day motion-to-compel-further period can be extended by written agreement to a date certain. An agreement displaces the calculated date entirely.
• Orders shortening or extending time. Every output is the statutory floor. A court order beats it.

Case types outside the scope

• Unlawful detainer. The response period is 5 days, not 30, and almost nothing on this site transfers.
• Family law, probate, appellate and federal deadlines. Different rule sets entirely.
• Statutes of limitation and Government Code § 911.2 claim deadlines. These turn on facts about accrual that a date calculator cannot see.
• Juvenile delinquency. Whether a Welfare and Institutions Code § 602 proceeding is a “criminal action” for the Pitchess notice period is unresolved, so it is left alone rather than guessed at.

Motions not in the catalog

• Sanctions under CCP § 128.7, subd. (c)(1) and its 21-day safe harbor.
• Consolidation and bifurcation.
• Fee motions under CRC rule 3.1702(b)(1), which sets the deadline by reference to the time to appeal rather than as a fixed period.
• Post-conviction criminal motions and expungement. CRC 4.111 governs pretrial motions by its terms and supplies no period for these.

If you hit one of these edges

Tell me, especially if you think something on this list should not be. Requests for coverage are the main reason things get built. errors@calcourtdeadlines.com. See also how the rules are verified.