BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SB 383
Page 1
Date of Hearing: August 19, 2015
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Jimmy Gomez, Chair
SB 383
(Wieckowski) - As Amended August 17, 2015
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|Policy |Judiciary |Vote:|10 - 0 |
|Committee: | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program: YesReimbursable:
No
SUMMARY:
This bill establishes new civil procedure requirements for
filing, amending, and resolving demurrers, requiring parties to
meet and confer before a party may file a demurrer, and
streamlining procedures for resolving demurrers. The bill
requires a demurring party to file a declaration stating the
means by which the parties met and conferred, or state the other
party failed to meet and confer in good faith, but specifies
that any determination by the court that the process was
insufficient shall not be grounds to overrule or sustain a
demurrer. The bill exempts certain specified civil actions from
the new demurrer procedure, and sunsets on January 1, 2021.
SB 383
Page 2
FISCAL EFFECT:
Insignificant costs to the courts and Judicial Council, possible
minor administrative cost savings if the revised procedures
result in fewer court hearings.
COMMENTS:
1)Purpose. According to the author, some attorneys use the
demurrer process to delay litigation and harass opponents,
maximizing the time allotted to file and amend demurrers
without a good faith effort to resolve the complaints. The
procedures in this bill are intended to prevent attorneys from
waiting until immediately before a court hearing on a demurrer
to file an amended complaint, thereby mooting the hearing on
the demurrer and wasting court and party resources.
Opponents, led by the Civil Justice Association of California,
assert the new procedures will simply result in further delays
to resolving baseless claims.
2)Demurrers. Defendants to a lawsuit generally have 30 days
from receiving service of a complaint to respond. Possible
legal responses include an answer, general denial, demurrer,
and certain procedural motions. Demurrers challenge the
sufficiency of allegations in a complaint as a matter of law,
for example that the complaint does not state all the required
elements of a claim or is not legally cognizable (i.e., the
claim is nonsense). Questions of fact are not normally
resolvable on demurrer.
3)Meet and Confer. This bill's meet and confer requirement is
intended to streamline the handling of demurrers, allowing
SB 383
Page 3
parties to consider whether amending pleadings to resolve
deficiencies prior to hearing is appropriate. The bill
requires both parties to discuss the merits of the pleading
and the demurrer prior to any court hearing, establishing a
timetable for meetings and extension of meeting times if
necessary.
Analysis Prepared by:Joel Tashjian / APPR. / (916)
319-2081