Cal. Rules of Court, rule 3.735 · Chapter 3. Case Management
Management of short cause cases
Text — As posted by the Judicial Council of California (read October 22, 2026)
(a) Short cause case defined
A short cause case is a civil case in which the time estimated for trial by all parties or the court is five hours or less. All other civil cases are long cause cases.
(b) Exemption for short cause case and setting of case for trial
The court may order, upon the stipulation of all parties or the court's own motion, that a case is a short cause case exempted from the requirements of case management review and set the case for trial.
(c) Mistrial
If a short cause case is not completely tried within five hours, the judge may declare a mistrial or, in the judge's discretion, may complete the trial. In the event of a mistrial, the case will be treated as a long cause case and must promptly be set either for a new trial or for a case management conference.
Notes and commentary — not rule text
History
(Subd (a) amended effective January 1, 2007.)
Rule 3.735 amended and renumbered effective January 1, 2007; adopted as rule 214 effective July 1, 2002.
Chapter 4 adopted effective July 1, 2008.
Source of truth
- Edition
- As posted by the Judicial Council of California (read October 22, 2026)
- Official file
- https://courts.ca.gov/cms/rules/index/three/rule3_735
- Text hash
- sha256 09f01ac7281be8e1acd13b7c703dc1eb534f12a24e7e16dad310991095fea4f0
- Composed by
- compose_crc.py 2026-10-22: the Judicial Council's rule pages read paragraph by paragraph; verify_crc.py's second reading of the Council's per-title PDFs finds every paragraph
BenchPath cards that rely on this text
- Madera County Superior Court Local Rules of Court (effective January 1, 2026) — Division 2, Trial Court Rules, Chapters 7 to 12 (CourtCall Telephone Hearings, Settlement Conferences, Continuances, Fax Filing, Civil Active List) (Rules 2.7.1 to 2.12.2)
- Nevada County Superior Court Rules of Court (effective January 1, 1997; updated July 1, 2026) — Chapter 4: Civil Procedure
Procedural information only. Not legal advice and not a substitute for the advice of an attorney. Confirm the current text with the official publisher before relying on it.