California Adopts Coronavirus-Prompted Changes to Court Process

Some of the coronavirus-driven changes California made for state courts are now permanent.

Legislation (S.B. 1146) that Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed Sept. 18 extended deadlines on discovery, disclosure of experts, mandatory settlement conferences, and serving documents.

The law, which took immediate effect, allows remote—rather than face-to-face—depositions and makes the physical presence of parties or attorneys of record optional at depositions, provisions that the state Judicial Council adopted when California’s shelter-in-place order was issued this past March 4.

The purpose “is to enact some common-sense requirements so that there is some universal rule that the courts and litigants ...