Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in California

The Courts set a discovery deadline that is usually quite a bit before the time the parties answer ready. If the discovery deadline has passed, and Motion can be made to the Judge, or a stipulation can be sought from the adverse party to allow discovery.

The courts do NOT set a discovery deadline in state court (if you were in Federal court you would not be asking this question since you would have a complete case management schedule). It is set by statute. All discovery except discovery pertaining to expert witnesses must be completed 30-days before trial. That means written discovery responses must be due by that deadline, and depositions must commence by that deadline, so discovery demands and deposition notices must be served enough ahead of that time to be due by then. There are dozens of other discovery-related deadlines tied to the trial date, but none are tied to telling the judge you are ready for trial.