Legal Question in Administrative Law in California

Re: Postponing summary judgment date

Court rules and practices vary from county to county. One of the bigger differences is that some courts issue tentative rulings on motions, which may affect the necessity of appearing for the hearing on the MSJ, or whether there even will be a hearing.

Attorneys face court-calendar conflicts all the time. There is a number of possible ways to handle conflicts. Here are a few possibilities:

(1) Contact the county Bar Association to ask for names of local attorneys who make "appearances" on a one-time basis, and hire one to make a "special appearance" on your behalf. Probably easiest and can be pretty cheap.

(2) Contact the opposing attorney and explain the conflict. Ask him or her to join with you in stipulating to a short postponement of the hearing. When both parties agree, the judge, although not bound to do so, will usually grant the joint request without any hearing. Opposing counsel will ordinarily cooperate. They are officers of the court, not your enemy, and have a duty to make court proceedings run smoothly.

(3) Go in ex-parte and ask for an order on short notice postponing the hearing. You have a reason that no judge could refuse.

(4) Appearances by telephone are also often used to help out in schedule conflict matters, but you cannot be a juror and on the phone to another courtroom at the same time.

In your case, I think I would go for the appearance attorney. with a stipulation with opposing counsel a strong second choice.

Oh, the starting point might be to have a discussion with the clerk of the court or the judge's clerk to determine local preferences, if any.

Re: Postponing summary judgment date

Call the Department and schedule an ex parte hearing to continue the hearing date. You may want to first ask the adverse if they will stipulate.