California Tenants - Department of Consumer Affairs - State of ...

discovery in unlawful detainer cases
each of the four available discovery procedures requires a minimum of five days’ notice to
the landlord before the landlord is required to respond. 309 Available discovery procedures in
unlawful detainer actions include oral depositions, 310 written interrogatories, 311 inspection,
copying, testing, or sampling of the landlord’s records, things, elelctronically stored information
and places, 312 and requests for admissions. 313 under these rules, the landlord must comply with
your request for discovery within five days. 314 All discovery must be completed on or before the
fifth day before the date set for trial. 315
• if you intend to defend your case, and intend to use the discovery process as a tool, you must
follow strict timelines applicable to evictions in California.
• the discovery process works in five-day increments. once you have been served, you may
begin your discovery by mailing any discovery requests. You must allow five days for your
request to be received by the landlord. the landlord then has five days to respond to your
request. All of the discovery must be completed at least five days before the date of the
trial. 316
309 Code of Civil Procedure Section 1170.8. Moskovitz, California Eviction Defense Manual, Paragraph 23.1-23.52 (Cal. Cont. Ed. Bar
2011).
310 Code of Civil Procedure Section 2025.270(b).
311 Code of Civil Procedure Section 2030.260(b).
312 Code of Civil Procedure Section 2031.010, 2031.260(b), 2031.020(b)(c).
313 Code of Civil Procedure Section 2033.020(c).
314 Code of Civil Procedure Section 1170.8.
315 Code of Civil Procedure Section 2024.040(b).
316 The time periods discussed assume that no orders are obtained shortening or extending time. See also Moskovitz, California Eviction
Defense Manual, Paragraph 23.8 (Cal. Cont. Ed. Bar 2011) for a day-by-day timeline.
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