CCP 1005 motion deadlines: 16, 9, and 5 court days, and what the service method adds

Sixteen court days of notice. Opposition nine court days before the hearing. Reply five court days before. Most California litigation teams can recite Code of Civil Procedure section 1005(b) from memory.

The mistakes happen around the numbers, not in them. Which motions does the section govern? How many days does the service method add, and to which deadline? And, for anything served in late 2026 for a 2027 hearing, which version of the statute applies? This article takes those three questions in turn.

Which motions section 1005 governs

Subdivision (a) lists thirteen categories. Twelve are specific, from an application for a writ of attachment to a motion to expunge a lis pendens. The thirteenth is the one that matters most often: any other proceeding under the code in which notice is required and no other time or method is prescribed by law or by the court.

That catch-all is why section 1005 is the default for an ordinary noticed motion. It is also why the section does not govern everything. A motion for summary judgment runs on section 437c's own timetable. Discovery motions, motions in limine, and ex parte applications have their own rules or local requirements. And subdivision (b) opens with “unless otherwise ordered or specifically provided by law,” so a court order setting a briefing schedule displaces the statute.

The baseline schedule

All three are court days, which exclude Saturdays, Sundays, and judicial holidays. Section 12c directs the count backward from the hearing, excluding the hearing date. The court, or a judge, may prescribe a shorter time.

The method is worked through day by day in How to count court days in California. The short version: start the day before the hearing, count only court days, and stop at the number. The 2027 holiday schedule lists the days to skip.

What the service method adds, and to which deadline

Section 1005(b) extends the notice period only. The opposition and reply deadlines are measured from the hearing and do not grow when the moving papers were mailed. The extensions are stated in calendar days, and section 12c(b) says to count them backward from the day the sixteen-court-day count produced.

Two details in that table are easy to get wrong.

Section 1013 does not apply. Section 1005(b) says so in terms: the general service extensions in section 1013 do not apply to a notice of motion, opposition, or reply governed by section 1005. The mail extensions in the table come from section 1005 itself, which uses the same numbers. The difference shows up with overnight delivery and fax: section 1013 adds two court days for those methods, while section 1005 adds two calendar days to the notice period. Section 1013 still governs other papers, such as a response to discovery served by mail.

The electronic-service extension ends with 2026. Today, section 1010.6(a)(3)(B) extends any statutory notice or response period by two court days after electronic service, except for a notice of intention to move for new trial, a motion to vacate under section 663a, and a notice of appeal. Assembly Bill 540, chapter 263 of the Statutes of 2026, approved on September 18, 2026, rewrites that paragraph and removes the extension. It also amends section 1005(b) to say that the two-calendar-day overnight-delivery bump excludes electronic service. The Legislative Counsel's Digest describes the change as a clarification that electronic service is not among the methods that increase the period of notice. As an ordinary statute it takes effect on January 1, 2027.

Two things do not change. A document served electronically on a non-court day is still deemed served on the next court day under section 1010.6(a)(4). And a saved calendaring formula that adds two days to every e-served deadline will be wrong for 2027 in both directions: too generous for the party counting, and a trap for the party relying on it.

A worked example across the change

Assume a motion governed by section 1005 is set for Thursday, January 28, 2027, with no order altering the schedule.

Now add electronic service. The moving papers would be served in December 2026, when the two-court-day extension in section 1010.6 still exists, for a hearing in January 2027, when it does not. Nothing in AB 540 says which version governs that situation. The safe course for the moving party is to serve two court days earlier than the personal-delivery date, on Thursday, December 31, 2026, and to record the reasoning. The safe course for the opposing party is not to assume the extra days exist.

Note what happens when a mail extension lands on a weekend or holiday. The out-of-state calculation produced Saturday, December 26, with Christmas Day on the Friday before it. Because the deadline is to give notice before a hearing, practitioners generally move it to the preceding court day rather than forward. Section 12a's forward extension is written for the last day to perform an act, and relying on it to shorten notice invites an objection.

Serving the opposition and reply

Section 1005(c) sets a separate requirement for opposition and reply papers. They must be served by personal delivery, fax, express mail, or another means consistent with sections 1010 through 1013 that is reasonably calculated to ensure delivery not later than the close of the next business day after filing. Electronic service on a represented party is ordinarily mandatory under section 1010.6(b) and satisfies the requirement when it is complete on the day of filing. Mailing an opposition on the ninth court day does not.

Subdivision (c) applies to summary judgment and summary adjudication opposition and reply papers as well, even though their filing deadlines come from section 437c.

A checklist for section 1005 motions

• Confirm the motion is governed by section 1005 and not by a specific statute, rule, or order.
• Confirm the hearing date from the court's reservation or calendar, not from a draft notice.
• Count 16, 9, and 5 court days backward from the hearing, skipping weekends and judicial holidays.
• Add the section 1005(b) extension for the service method to the notice period only, counting calendar days backward from the sixteenth court day.
• For electronic service in late 2026 for a 2027 hearing, decide which version applies and document it.
• Check that the last day is a court day; if not, serve on the preceding court day.
• Serve opposition and reply by a method that delivers by the next business day.
• Save the rule, the inputs, the skipped days, and the reviewer with the result.

AlwaysPresent surfaces the hearing dates and docket entries that start these counts and puts them on the firm's calendar. Its planned deadline tools are intended to show the rule and the skipped days next to each date. Explore AlwaysPresent.

This article provides general information for California civil litigation workflows. It does not determine the deadline in a particular case. Statutory text was checked against the Legislative Counsel's site on November 1, 2026.

Related articles: How to count court days in California and California court holidays 2027.