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If the defendant appears, trial must be held not later than the 20th day after the request to set the trial is made, with judgment entered and, if the plaintiff prevails, a writ of execution issued immediately on request; the period may be extended by agreement of all parties, and otherwise only after a hearing under subdivision (c) at which the court may order rent paid into court or escrow; if a court-ordered payment is missed, trial is held within 15 days of the missed due date.
California > Superior courts (unlawful detainer)
(a) If the defendant appears pursuant to Section 1170, trial of the proceeding shall be held not later than the 20th day following the date that the request to set the time of the trial is made. Judgment shall be entered thereon and, if the plaintiff prevails, a writ of execution shall be issued immediately by the court upon the request of the plaintiff. … (b) The court may extend the period for trial upon the agreement of all of the parties. No other extension of the time for trial of an action under this chapter may be granted unless the court, upon its own motion or on motion of any party, holds a hearing and renders a decision thereon as specified in subdivision (c). … (d) If the defendant fails to make a payment ordered by the court, trial of the action shall be held within 15 days of the date payment was due.
20 calendar days after
Unlawful detainer trial: not later than the 20th day after the request to set it
Trigger: Request to set the trial (unlawful detainer)
Code Civ. Proc., § 1170.5(a)
Computed periods follow Code Civ. Proc. §§ 12–12c — a period in court days skips weekends and judicial holidays, a period before a hearing counts backward from it (§ 12c), and a day a court is closed counts as a holiday (§ 12b); always confirm holiday calendars for the specific court.
Reviewer note: Held dark at the California go-live (owner ruling 2026-10-13, gate item A.13): this card rests on a section page read on 2026-09-28 from leginfo.legislature.ca.gov, whose robots.txt disallows every agent ("User-agent: * / Disallow: /", read 2026-10-03; a Cloudflare challenge page on 2026-10-14). It is re-published only after its text is re-verified, verbatim, from a channel robots.txt permits. Re-sourced 2026-10-22 (California parity Phase 4; the owner's ruling of 2026-10-13 on gate item A.13: re-publish once re-verified, verbatim, from a channel robots.txt permits): every paragraph of this card's text appears verbatim in Code Civ. Proc., § 1170.5 as the Legislative Counsel publishes it in the official weekly code archive (downloads.leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/pubinfo_2025.zip, extract of 2026-10-18; LAW_SECTION_TBL row CCP1170.5.198216202, version id_91d17065-291e-11d9-8231-adff999f5ee6; the host serves no robots.txt). The link stays the section's page on the official site, which robots.txt closes to automated reads; the archive is the verification receipt.
1 verbatim requirement on continuances in JEREMY I. FRANKER's division.
1 verbatim requirement on continuances.
Judge Weiss: case law and memos to chambers five business days before the hearing, and every exhibit a party intends to use listed on a notice of discovery and provided to the other side five business days out.