Trial setting
The statutory clocks that decide whether you reach trial at all, and the jury you can lose without noticing.
The sequence
- At filingThe five-year clock startsCalendar years from commencement, not from service.
- CMC setJury fee deposit dueOn or before the date the initial conference is set for. No service extension reaches it.
- OngoingTolling, if anyImpossible, impracticable or futile. Narrower than it looks, and it has to be on the record.
- 5 yearsDismissal is mandatoryThe court can order it on its own motion, and the article is not subject to waiver.
- Age 70+Preference motionA qualifying party can force trial within 120 days, which beats the clock rather than tolling it.
This sequence is the shape of the stage, not a calculator. Dates come from calcourtdeadlines.com.
Guides in this stage5
- The five-year ruleDismissal is mandatory, tolling is narrower than it looks, and a party over 70 can force trial in 120 days.
- The jury fee deposit that waives your jury trial150 dollars, due on or before the date the initial case management conference is set for. No service extension reaches it, relief is discretionary, and TriCoast changed what you have to show on appeal.
- The statement of decision, and the objection that preserves itTen days after the tentative decision, none at all after a short trial, and why requesting one preserves nothing without a section 634 objection.
- Entry of judgment, notice of entry, and the clocks they startEntry makes a judgment effectual. Service of notice of entry starts the new trial, JNOV, vacatur, costs and appeal clocks, and neither CCP 1013 nor CCP 1010.6 extends the ones that matter.
- Continuing a trial dateRule 3.1332 takes a motion even when everyone has stipulated, and the new date does not reopen discovery, move the expert exchange, or stop the five-year clock.