ca-law-references

name	ca-law-references
title	California Law References — General Civil Practice
description	This skill should be used when the user needs to cite, apply, or research law that bears on California civil court practice across any subject matter. Triggers include "CCP 437c", "Code Civ. Proc., § 437c", "summary judgment California", "CCP 2016", "Civil Discovery Act", "California discovery rules", "CEC 1271", "Cal. Evid. Code § 1271", "business records California", "authentication California evidence", "hearsay exception California", "California citation format", "California Style Manual", "CSM", "Cal.", "Cal.App.", "Cal.Rptr.", "California prevailing party fees", "CCP 1032", "CCP 1033.5", "cost memorandum California", "motion to tax costs", "CCP 998 offer", "Civ. Code § 1717", "attorney fees contract California", "CCP 1021.5 private attorney general", "LASC local rules", "SFSC local rules", "Cal. Rules of Court rule 3.1308", "CRC 3.1300", "CRC 3.700", "case management conference California", "California civil demurrer", "CCP 430.10", "CCP 431.30", "motion to strike California", "CCP 435", "California answer deadline", "30 days to answer California", "verify California citation", "Aguilar v. Atlantic Richfield", "Howell v. Hamilton Meats", "collateral source California", "Riverisland parol evidence", "canonical URL California courts", "fetch California court rule". Covers the California Code of Civil Procedure (CCP), the California Evidence Code (CEC, Cal. Evid. Code), California Rules of Court (CRC), fees and costs under CCP §§ 1032 and 1033.5, local rules for LASC, SFSC, OCSC, and other Superior Courts, general civil key cases, the California Style Manual citation conventions, and the canonical online-sources catalog for fetching current rule text, statutes, and case law. For subject-matter-specific law (debt collection under Rosenthal FDCPA or the UCL, landlord-tenant, family, personal injury), compose with the relevant subject-matter skill (e.g., ca-consumer-debt).
author	codearranger
author_url	https://github.com/codearranger/claude-legal/tree/main/plugins/ca-court-docs/skills/ca-law-references
license	MIT
version	0.1.0
execution_mode	open
jurisdiction	us
practice	litigation
language	en

California Law References — General Civil Practice

This skill is a matter-neutral reference index — a pointer to the statutes, rules, and doctrines most often invoked in California civil practice across any subject matter. The body below summarizes each source. Detailed sections, elements, and citation examples live in references/.

NOT LEGAL ADVICE. These notes are drafting aids, not legal advice. Every citation should be verified against the current CCP, current court rule, or current case law before it goes into a filing. Use ca-fact-check before any packet is filed.

How to use this skill

Ask: what is the user trying to establish procedurally?

• A procedural motion (demurrer, motion to strike, motion to compel, summary judgment, default, vacate) → start with references/civil-rules.md
• An evidentiary objection (hearsay, authentication, best evidence, foundation, privilege) → start with references/evidence-rules.md
• A fee-and-cost request or objection → start with references/fees-and-costs.md
• A local-rule question (LASC, SFSC, OCSC, or other Superior Court local rules) → start with references/local-rules.md
• Citation format → references/citation-format.md
• Canonical URL or citation verification → start with references/online-sources.md and hand off to ca-fact-check for per-filing verification
• Programmatic / structured lookup (California codes XML, USC XML, eCFR API, CourtListener for cite-checking, bulk extraction, change detection) → references/legal-data-apis.md. Prefer the APIs listed there over HTML scraping when the result will be parsed
• A general civil case (SJ standard, lodestar, default vacation, collateral source) → start with references/key-cases.md
• Subject-matter law (FDCPA, Rosenthal Act, UCL, CLRA, FDBPA, landlord-tenant, family, PI) → use the relevant subject-matter skill (e.g., ca-consumer-debt for debt collection)

California civil rules

California civil practice draws on three overlapping rule sets:

1. California Code of Civil Procedure (CCP) — the primary procedural statute; covers pleadings, service, motions, discovery, trial, judgment, and post-judgment. Enacted by the Legislature; codified at Cal. Code Civ. Proc. §§ 307–1062.