What You Need to Know About Summary Adjudication in California
Summary adjudication is a pre-trial procedural device for litigation in California state courts. Here’s what you need to know about summary adjudication in California.
A party can file a motion for summary adjudication when they are unable to prove that all of the evidence is in their favor before going to trial. Summary adjudication allows the court to assess a limited group of issues listed in California’s summary judgment statute. Summary adjudication allows the courts to evaluate the merits of affirmative defense, claims for damages, issues of duty, and a specific cause of action. Essentially, summary adjudication allows for a case to set aside certain issues that are established or agreed upon, while allowing the case to proceed to trial regarding unresolved issues.
Summary Adjudication versus Summary Judgment in California
Summary judgment is a procedural device that allows a court to determine whether one’s claims, defenses, or evidence are strong enough to take to trial. A summary judgment can close a case before it is brought to trial. If summary judgment is denied in a case, a summary adjudication order can be granted. This can only occur if the opposing party is aware that this would be an issue-by-issue adjudication. Varying aspects of a case may or may not be addressed with summary adjudication. For example, if a defendant is found careless in an automobile accident case, but there is conflicting evidence over the extent of the plaintiff’s injuries, they could go to trial on the question of the injuries rather than the degree of carelessness by the defendant. Once summary adjudication is granted in court, the remaining issues of the case will move forward to trial.
A motion for summary adjudication can reference or use the same evidence from a summary judgment motion. However, it is important to remember that if summary adjudication is sought separately or as an alternative to summary judgment, the affirmative defense, claim for damages, issues of duty, or cause for a specific action have to be explicitly stated in a notice of motion and repeated in a separate statement of undisputed material facts. If the notice of motion is not included in the summary adjudication motion, the moving party risks process violations.
Ordering a Summary Adjudication Motion
If the moving party decides to order summary adjudication, a separate statement of fact is required. A statement of fact is a written legal document that explains underlying assumptions and factual information relating to the case. It is important to know that if there is a triable issue with any of the facts in the statement, then the motion for summary adjudication will be denied.
Documents to Include in Support of the Motion
A motion of support for summary adjudication must contain the following documents:
- A notice of motion from the moving party for either summary judgment, summary adjudication, or both, if the motion is being used as an alternative,
- The separate statement of facts in support of the moving party’s motion,
- A memorandum in support of the moving party’s motion, and
- Evidence in support of the moving party’s motion.
The Separate Statement in Support of the Motion
When composing the Separate Statement of Undisputed Material Facts in support of the motion for summary adjudication, include the following information:
- Each affirmative defense, claim for damages, issue of duty, or specific causes of action that pertain to the motion, along with every undisputed detail related to the material facts.
- The statement should be formatted in a two-column manner. The undisputed facts must be listed in the first column and the supporting evidence in the second column. When citing the evidence that corresponds with each fact, the exhibit, title, page, and line number should be referenced accordingly.
Opposition to the Motion
The other party has an opportunity to file a written opposition statement, where they can oppose the requests made by the moving party.
Documents to Include in Opposition to the Motion
The opposing party should include the following documents in opposition to the motion for summary adjudication:
- The opposing party’s memorandum,
- A separate statement in opposition to the motion,
- Evidence in opposition to the motion, and
- A request for judicial notice in opposition to the motion, if necessary.
The Separate Statement in Opposition to the Motion
When writing the Separate Statement in Opposition to the motion for summary adjudication, it is important to include the following elements:
- Every material fact claimed by the moving party that the opposing party wishes to dispute should be listed on the left side of the paper, with reference to the moving party’s evidence and exhibits.
- The right side of the page should unequivocally state whether each of the moving party’s material facts is “disputed” or “undisputed.” The opposing party is responsible for identifying the nature of the dispute and providing evidence for disputed facts.
- If the opposing party seeks to introduce additional material facts, these facts must be pertinent to the case and included in the statement. Any new fact needs to be supported by evidence and must also reference exhibit, title, page, and line numbers.
If this written statement exceeds 25 pages, the evidence will have to be collected separately and paired with a table of contents.
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