On April 6, 2020, the Judicial Council of California placed on hold nearly all evictions in the entire state by enacting 11 emergency rules of the California Rules of Court due to Covid-19 crisis . A previous order issued by Governor Newsom expanded the Judicial Council’s emergency authority, making Monday’s sweeping action possible. However, the new emergency court rules go much further than Gov. Gavin Newsom’s and Maryor Garceti’s eviction moratorium, declared through an executive order last month.
Specifically, the rules approved by the council do the following:
- Suspend the issuance of a summons in an unlawful detainer action, unless the court finds there is a health and safety reason. This means landlords cannot serve defendants in the newly filed unlawful detainer cases in most circumstances.
- Prohibit entry of default and/or default judgments in unlawful detainer cases, unless the court finds there is a health and safety reason and the defendant has not appeared.
- In cases already “at issue” (in which defendants have already been served and appeared), mandates that unlawful detainer trials be set no earlier than 60 days after a request for trial, again unless there is a health and safety reason.
- Order all trials on calendar as of April 1 will be continued at least 60 days.
The Rule is to remain in effect until 90 days after the Governor declares the state of emergency lifted or until the rule is amended or repealed by the Judicial Council.
You can find the new emergency rules here https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Xc19rmdD5kwf-wFvn-9XT10BQ7GASpjp
