Legal Question in Civil Litigation in California

A Court may wait, until the time of the hearing to make a ruling, but there are different procedures, in different courthouses. In some Courts, the judge will post a tentative ruling, on the internet. Check the website for your County's court. Most court websites have a "tentative ruling" selection, and you will be able to find out what the Court's tentative ruling is, one or two days, before the hearing. Not all judges post tentative rulings, however. If you get one of those judges, you may be able to call the courtroom, the day before the hearing, and ask the clerk if there is a tentative ruling. Once you find out the tentative ruling, most courts allow the parties to "submit on the tentative." The court's website will indicate the procedure for doing that. Some courts just require a telephone call. Others, have a more formal procedure.

Before the court does anything, the defendant has the right to file a reply to your opposition. They have until 5 court days before the hearing to file and serve that. So the court will do nothing until it receives the reply papers or the deadline passes without any being submitted. After that, most courts have a civil motion tentative ruling system. However, the tentative ruling is only issued by most courts 24 to 48 hours before the hearing, sometimes even just the afternoon before. The tentative ruling then becomes the final binding ruling of the court unless one of the parties gives notice to the court and the other party that they demand a hearing to contest the tentative ruling. The deadline for giving notice varies among the courts. You will need to look at the local rules for the court you are in, and check for information on its website to get the specifics on the tentative ruling process and deadlines in that court.