Rule 26.3.Disclosure in unlawful detainer actions

Unlawful detainer cases move fast, so Rule 26.3 swaps out Rule 26's general disclosure timing for a schedule built around the speed of an eviction proceeding under the forcible entry and detainer statute. Instead of waiting weeks after an answer is filed, the plaintiff must serve core disclosures with the summons and complaint itself (unless already in the complaint): any written rental agreement, the eviction notice that was served, an itemized calculation of past-due rent, damages, costs, and attorney fees as of the filing date, an explanation of the factual basis for the eviction, and notice telling the defendant about the defendant's own disclosure obligations under the rule.

If either side requests an evidentiary hearing under the eviction statute, a second round of disclosures follows on a short fuse. The requesting party must serve, along with the hearing request, any not-yet-disclosed documents it will offer and the names (with address and phone number, if known) of fact witnesses it may call along with a summary of their expected testimony — except for adverse-party witnesses. When the other side is the one who requested the hearing, the responding party must serve its own equivalent disclosures no less than two days before the hearing, using whatever method is most likely to reach the other side promptly. For any case that proceeds to trial rather than resolving at the evidentiary-hearing stage, the standard Rule 26(a)(5)(A) pretrial disclosures are due no later than fourteen days before trial, with counter-designations and objections due seven days before trial — both far shorter windows than Rule 26 sets for ordinary civil cases.