California Code of Civil Procedure PRELIMINARY PROVISIONS

• Section 2.
  This Code takes effect at twelve o'clock noon, on the first day of January, eighteen hundred and seventy-three.(Enacted 1872.)
• Section 3.
  No part of it is retroactive, unless expressly so declared.(Enacted 1872.)
• Section 4.
  The rule of the common law, that statutes in derogation thereof are to be strictly construed, has no application to this Code. The Code establishes...
• Section 5.
  The provisions of this Code, so far as they are substantially the same as existing statutes, must be construed as continuations thereof, and not as...
• Section 6.
  All persons who at the time this Code takes effect hold office under any of the Acts repealed, continue to hold the same according to...
• Section 7.
  When any office is abolished by the repeal of any Act, and such Act is not in substance reënacted or continued in either of the...
• Section 8.
  No action or proceeding commenced before this Code takes effect, and no right accrued, is affected by its provisions, but the proceedings therein must conform...
• Section [9.].
  When a limitation or period of time prescribed in any existing statute for acquiring a right or barring a remedy, or for any other purpose,...
• Section 10.
  Holidays within the meaning of this code are every Sunday and any other days that are specified or provided for as judicial holidays in Section...
• Section 11.
  Wherever any notice or other communication is required by this code to be mailed by registered mail by or to any person or corporation, the...
• Section 12.
  The time in which any act provided by law is to be done is computed by excluding the first day, and including the last, unless...
• Section 12a.
  (a) If the last day for the performance of any act provided or required by law to be performed within a specified period of time is...
• Section 12b.
  If any city, county, state, or public office, other than a branch office, is closed for the whole of any day, insofar as the business...
• Section 12c.
  (a) Where any law requires an act to be performed no later than a specified number of days before a hearing date, the last day to...
• Section 13.
  Whenever any act of a secular nature, other than a work of necessity or mercy, is appointed by law or contract to be performed upon...
• Section 13a.
  Any act required by law to be performed on a particular day or within a specified period of time may be performed (but is not...
• Section 13b.
  Any act required by law to be performed on a particular day or within a specified period may be performed (but is not hereby required...
• Section 14.
  When the seal of a Court, public officer, or person is required by law to be affixed to any paper, the word “seal” includes an...
• Section 15.
  Words giving a joint authority to three or more public officers or other persons are construed as giving such authority to a majority of them,...
• Section 16.
  Words and phrases are construed according to the context and the approved usage of the language; but technical words and phrases, and such others as...
• Section 17.
  (a) Words used in this code in the present tense include the future as well as the present. Words used in the masculine gender include the...
• Section 18.
  No statute, law, or rule is continued in force because it is consistent with the provisions of this Code on the same subject; but in...
• Section 19.
  This Act, whenever cited, enumerated, referred to, or amended, may be designated simply as “The Code of Civil Procedure,” adding, when necessary, the number of the...
• Section 20.
  Judicial remedies are such as are administered by the Courts of justice, or by judicial officers empowered for that purpose by the Constitution and statutes...
• Section 21.
  These remedies are divided into two classes:1. Actions; and,2. Special proceedings.(Enacted 1872.)
• Section 22.
  An action is an ordinary proceeding in a court of justice by which one party prosecutes another for the declaration, enforcement, or protection of a...
• Section 23.
  Every other remedy is a special proceeding.(Enacted 1872.)
• Section 24.
  Actions are of two kinds:1. Civil; and,2. Criminal.(Enacted 1872.)
• Section 25.
  A civil action arises out of:1. An obligation;2. An injury.(Enacted 1872.)
• Section [26.].
  An obligation is a legal duty, by which one person is bound to do or not to do a certain thing, and arises from either...
• Section 27.
  An injury is of two kinds:1. To the person; and,2. To property.(Enacted 1872.)
• Section 28.
  An injury to property consists in depriving its owner of the benefit of it, which is done by taking, withholding, deteriorating, or destroying it.(Enacted 1872.)
• Section 29.
  Every other injury is an injury to the person.(Enacted 1872.)
• Section 30.
  A civil action is prosecuted by one party against another for the declaration, enforcement or protection of a right, or the redress or prevention of...
• Section 31.
  The Penal Code defines and provides for the prosecution of a criminal action.(Enacted 1872.)
• Section 32.
  When the violation of a right admits of both a civil and criminal remedy, the right to prosecute the one is not merged in the...
• Section 32.5.
  The “jurisdictional classification” of a case means its classification as a limited civil case or an unlimited civil case.(Amended by Stats. 2002, Ch. 784, Sec....
• Section 33.
  A prosecuting attorney, in his or her discretion, may assist in the civil resolution of a violation of an offense described in Title 13 (commencing...
• Section 34.
  An electronic signature, as defined in Section 17, by a court or judicial officer shall be as effective as an original signature.(Added by Stats. 2015,...

Last modified: October 22, 2018