Rule 3.1103.Definitions and construction

Rule 3.1103 answers the question Rule 3.1100 leaves open: what counts as “law and motion”? The definition has two parts. First, it covers pretrial applications for court orders generally — but not applications arising under the Welfare and Institutions Code, the Probate Code, the Family Code, or the civil harassment and workplace-violence protective-order statutes in Code of Civil Procedure sections 527.6, 527.7, 527.8, and 527.85, which follow their own separate tracks. Second, it covers a specific list of post-judgment and enforcement proceedings: enforcing a judgment, attaching property, appointing a receiver, obtaining or setting aside a default judgment, writs of review, mandate, and prohibition, petitions to compel arbitration, and enforcement of arbitration awards.

Two more subdivisions round out the rule. Subdivision (b) confirms that the general rules on extending or shortening time apply to everything covered by this division, so the ordinary time-extension mechanics are not somehow suspended for law-and-motion matters. Subdivision (c) extends the division’s rules to demurrers unless the context makes that impossible — meaning the format and filing requirements built for motions generally also shape how demurrers are briefed and heard.