Code Civ. Proc., § 460.5 · Chapter 7. General Rules of Pleading
Code Civ. Proc., § 460.5
Text — As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
(a) In any action for libel or slander, for good cause shown upon ex parte written application, the court may order that the time to respond to the complaint is 20 days after the service of summons on the defendant. The application shall be supported by an affidavit stating facts showing, among other things, that the alleged defamatory matter has been continuously published and that there is a reasonable likelihood that the publication will continue. The order shall direct the clerk to endorse the summons to show that the time to respond has been shortened pursuant to this section. A copy of the application, affidavit, and order shall be served with the summons.
(b) In any such action, unless otherwise ordered by the court for good cause shown, the time allowed the defendant to respond to the complaint or amend the answer under Section 586 shall not exceed 10 days.
(c) The court shall give any such action precedence over all other civil actions, except actions to which special precedence is given by law, in the matter of the setting the case for hearing or trial, and in hearing the case, to the end that all such actions shall be quickly heard and determined. Except for good cause shown, the court shall not grant a continuance in excess of 10 days without the consent of the adverse party.
(d) For purposes of this section, “continuously published” means three or more publications within 15 days.
Notes and commentary — not statutory text
History
Added by Stats. 1972, Ch. 594.
Source of truth
- Edition
- As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
- Official file
- https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CCP§ionNum=460.5.
- Text hash
- sha256 7cd56de3f10fec59848da7e5a7ec61a3bc30177d699d92a37b4ae7e32132cb9c
- Composed by
- compose_ca.py 2026-10-22: the Legislative Counsel's CAML content files read by a tokenizer (caml_readers.reader_a); an independent xml.etree reading (caml_readers.reader_b) agrees on every section
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