BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó



                                                                     SB 383  


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          Date of Hearing:  August 19, 2015


                        ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS


                                 Jimmy Gomez, Chair


          SB 383  
          (Wieckowski) - As Amended August 17, 2015


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          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  


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          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  


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            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