Legal Question in Civil Litigation in California
How do I submit a revised Declaration to a Motion for Summary Judgment (after the MSJ, the Opposition, and the Reply have already finished)? Can I bring a revised Declaration to the oral argument, or is there a formal filing process that I need to use or can use beforehand?
4 Answers from Attorneys
If the MSJ, opposition and reply have already been filed, don't waste your keystrokes. If you are a pro per defendant you will lose the MSJ and the case.
Unless the revisions are very important, it may cause more harm to file them now. If you have to file them, just send it in attached to a pleading for entitled Supplemental Declaration, explain why the changes and why making them this late. The judge probably will have made at least a tentative decision on the MSJ before the hearing occurs and no new evidence is supposed to be introduced.
If the evidence is very important to your defense, you might agree with the plaintiff to ask the court to continue the hearing so that the plaintiff will have time to address the new evidence. The court will NOT look at the declaration if you walk it in, unless it's in an unlawful detainer case during which you can essentially walk in with your evidence, because it's an expedited proceeding.
I'm not sure whether you are the moving party, but the time limit on serving your evidence in support of the motion for summary judgment is incredibly strict. All evidence supporting the motion must be served at least 75 days prior to the hearing. You are not allowed to sandbag the opposition by showing up with last minute evidence. The courts of appeal have held that the trial judge does not have the authority on this motion to allow the late filing of evidence outside the statutory scheme.