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