Rule 3.1300.Time for filing and service of motion papers

California's default clock for noticed motions runs through Code of Civil Procedure section 1005. Rule 3.1300(a) folds that statute into the Rules of Court and extends it to electronic filing and service, so moving and supporting papers must go out on that statutory schedule unless a specific law or court order says otherwise. For a litigant who needs to move faster than section 1005 allows, rule 3.1300(b) offers an escape hatch short of ex parte relief: an application for an order shortening time, backed by a declaration showing good cause, which the court can also issue on its own initiative.

The rule also polices the back end of the filing process. Proof that the moving papers were served has to be filed no later than five court days before the hearing, so the court can confirm notice happened before it rules. And rule 3.1300(d) takes rejection-for-lateness off the clerk's table entirely: no paper may be refused for filing just because it came in late. If a judge decides, in that judge's discretion, not to consider a late paper, the minutes or order have to say so, keeping that decision visible and reviewable rather than buried in a clerk's refusal to accept the document.

Rule 3.1300(e) rounds out the timing rules with a definition of "filed on time": a paper submitted before the clerk's office closes to the public on the due date counts as timely, and a local rule may extend that to electronic filings received before midnight on the due court day.