California’s civil discovery rules give both sides in a lawsuit broad power to demand information from each other before trial, using written questions, document requests, admissions, depositions, and medical exams. Most written requests must be answered within 30 days, and all discovery must be completed at least 30 days before the trial date, with any related motions heard at least 15 days before trial.1California Legislative Information. California Code CCP 2024.020 Miss those deadlines and you can lose objections, lose evidence, or lose the case.
What You Can Ask For
The scope is deliberately wide. You can request any information relevant to the lawsuit that isn’t protected by a legal privilege, even material that wouldn’t itself be admissible at trial, as long as the request could reasonably lead to admissible evidence.2California Legislative Information. California Code CCP 2017.010 – 2017.020 That covers who knows what, where documents live, and what electronic records exist.
Some things stay off-limits. Attorney-client communications are privileged.3California Legislative Information. California Evidence Code 954 – Lawyer-Client Privilege So are confidential medical communications with your doctor.4California Legislative Information. California Evidence Code 994 – Physician-Patient Privilege Attorney work-product also has protection. These privileges can be waived by careless disclosure to third parties, so treat them with care.
The Five Discovery Tools
Interrogatories
Written questions the other side must answer under oath. Two flavors exist. Form Interrogatories are standardized questions the Judicial Council has approved, and you can send as many as you like. Special Interrogatories are custom questions written for your case, capped at 35 as of right; going higher requires a declaration explaining why each additional question is necessary.5California Legislative Information. California Code CCP 2030.030 – Written Interrogatories
Requests for Production
These demand documents, electronically stored information, or physical items for inspection and copying.6California Legislative Information. California Code CCP 2031.010 – Inspection Demand One rule worth knowing: the producing party must label each document with the specific request number it responds to.7California Legislative Information. California Code CCP 2031.280 – Response to Demand for Inspection That’s your protection against a disorganized document dump designed to bury the important records.
Requests for Admission
These ask the other side to admit or deny specific facts or the authenticity of documents. Anything the other party admits is locked in for the case and doesn’t need to be proved at trial, though the admission applies only to that lawsuit.8Justia Law. California Code CCP 2033.410 – Effect of Admission They’re most useful for narrowing issues so trial focuses on what’s genuinely in dispute.
The penalty for ignoring them is unusually harsh. If you don’t respond on time, the requesting party can ask the court to deem every request admitted, and the court must grant that motion unless you’ve served a compliant response before the hearing. Monetary sanctions against the party or attorney responsible are also required.9California Legislative Information. California Code CCP 2033.280 – Failure to Respond to Requests for Admission Losing critical facts by default is one of the fastest ways to lose a case on a technicality.
Depositions
Live oral questioning of a witness or party under oath, taken outside the courtroom with a court reporter and often on video.10California Legislative Information. California Code CCP 2025.010 – Oral Deposition All attorneys questioning a witness (other than the witness’s own lawyer) share a seven-hour total. Courts can extend that limit if a fair examination requires more time or the deponent has caused delays.11California Legislative Information. California Code CCP 2025.290 – Deposition Time Limits
If a witness refuses to answer a question or produce a document during the deposition, you have 60 days from completion of the deposition record to file a motion to compel.12California Legislative Information. California Code CCP 2025.480 – Motion to Compel Answer at Deposition
Physical and Mental Examinations
When a party’s physical or mental condition is at issue, another party can seek a medical examination. In personal injury cases, one physical exam is available as of right. Mental exams and any additional physical exams require a court order, and the motion has to specify the time, place, scope, and identity and specialty of the examiner, along with a meet-and-confer declaration.13California Legislative Information. California Code CCP 2032.310 – Motion for Physical or Mental Examination
Discovery From People Who Aren’t Parties
You can also reach people and organizations outside the lawsuit through a deposition subpoena, in three forms: an oral deposition, a written deposition, or a subpoena for business records.14California Legislative Information. California Code CCP 2020.010 – Nonparty Discovery Methods Business records subpoenas do the heavy lifting for medical records, bank statements, and employment files, since no one has to sit for questioning.
Expert Witnesses
Once a trial date is set, any side can demand that all parties simultaneously exchange information about their trial experts, so no one sees the other’s list first.15California Legislative Information. California Code CCP 2034.260 – Expert Witness Declaration For each retained expert, the exchange includes a declaration under penalty of perjury covering the expert’s qualifications, the expected substance of their testimony, confirmation that they’ve agreed to appear and will be prepared for a meaningful deposition, and their hourly and daily rates. The demand can also sweep in the expert’s reports and writings. Depositions of the other side’s experts usually follow, and that’s where credibility often gets tested.
The 30-Day Response Clock
Interrogatories, requests for production, and requests for admission all carry the same base deadline: 30 calendar days from service to answer or object.16California Legislative Information. California Code CCP 2030.260 – Response Time for Interrogatories17California Legislative Information. California Code CCP 2031.260 – Response Time for Production Demands How the request was served changes the count:
- Mail within California adds five calendar days.18California Legislative Information. California Code CCP 1013 – Service by Mail
- Mail from or to another state adds ten calendar days.
- Mail to or from outside the U.S. adds twenty calendar days.
- Electronic service adds two court days, not calendar days.19California Legislative Information. California Code CCP 1010.6 – Electronic Service
Your response either provides the information or asserts a legal objection. Interrogatory answers and admission responses go under oath. If you can’t fully comply, you have to describe the search you made. Objections need specific legal grounds, such as privilege, irrelevance, or undue burden.
What Happens If You Miss the Deadline
Missing a response deadline in California isn’t a scheduling issue. It’s an automatic legal setback that’s hard to unwind. Fail to answer interrogatories on time and you waive every objection you had, including privilege and work-product protections. The other side then moves to compel, and monetary sanctions are mandatory against the losing side of that motion unless the failure was substantially justified.20California Legislative Information. California Code CCP 2030.290 – Failure to Respond to Interrogatories
The same waiver applies to requests for production. Requests for admission are worse still, because the underlying facts can be deemed admitted against you.9California Legislative Information. California Code CCP 2033.280 – Failure to Respond to Requests for Admission A court can undo a waiver caused by genuine mistake or excusable neglect, but that relief is discretionary. Calendar every discovery deadline the day the request arrives.
Pushing Back: Protective Orders
When a request is unreasonably burdensome, duplicative, or reaches sensitive material the case doesn’t require, you can ask the court for a protective order. The court can limit the frequency or scope of discovery if the information is available from a less burdensome source or the method costs more than the case warrants.21California Legislative Information. California Code CCP 2019.030 – Protective Orders The motion needs a meet-and-confer declaration showing you tried to work it out informally, and monetary sanctions are mandatory against the losing side absent substantial justification.
Meet and Confer, Then Move to Compel
Before going to a judge with any discovery fight, the attorneys have to make a good-faith effort to resolve it, whether in person, by phone, or by videoconference.22California Legislative Information. California Code CCP 2016.040 – Meet and Confer Requirement Courts take this seriously. A motion without a proper meet-and-confer declaration can be denied on that basis alone.
If negotiation fails, the requesting party files a motion to compel asking the court to order a response or a better response.23California Legislative Information. California Code CCP 2030.300 – Motion to Compel Further Interrogatory Responses24California Legislative Information. California Code CCP 2031.310 – Motion to Compel Further Production Responses Both motions have a strict 45-day deadline from receipt of the inadequate response. Miss that window and you permanently waive the right to compel a better answer, unless both sides have agreed in writing to a later date.
Sanctions
California defines discovery misuse broadly: failing to respond, making objections without substantial justification, giving evasive answers, and disobeying court orders all qualify.25California Legislative Information. California Code CCP 2023.030 – Discovery Sanctions The penalties climb in severity:
- Monetary sanctions require the offending party or their attorney to pay the other side’s reasonable expenses and attorney’s fees. Mandatory in many situations absent substantial justification.
- Issue sanctions treat certain facts as established against the offending party, or bar specific claims or defenses.
- Evidence sanctions block the offending party from introducing particular evidence at trial.
- Terminating sanctions strike pleadings, dismiss the case, or enter a default judgment. Reserved for repeated or willful violations.
- Contempt sanctions treat the misconduct as contempt of court.
There is a narrow safe harbor for electronically stored information lost through the routine, good-faith operation of a computer system. It disappears the moment a party knows or should know litigation is coming and fails to preserve relevant data.
The Pretrial Cutoff and the Continuance Trap
All discovery must be completed at least 30 days before the initially set trial date, and any discovery motion has to be heard at least 15 days before that date.26California Legislative Information. California Code CCP 2024.020 – Discovery Cutoff Here’s what catches litigants off guard: if the trial gets continued, the discovery cutoff does not automatically reopen. You have to file a separate motion asking the court to reopen discovery, and the court can say no. Plan backward from the trial date so a critical deposition or document request doesn’t fall on the wrong side of the cutoff.