Claim for costs after the publication of the judgment in California

The subject of this article is claiming costs after judgment entry in California. Claiming pre-judgment costs after the entry of a judgment in California requires the filing and service of a verified cost memorandum by the prevailing party entitled to costs.

California law provides that a cost memorandum must be verified by the party or their attorney and must be served and filed within a specified time frame. However, I want to emphasize that because each case is unique due to different circumstances, the actual deadline for any particular case depends on a variety of factors that will be discussed below.

The California deadline for filing and serving a memorandum of costs is set forth in California Court Rule 3.1700(a)(1) which states in pertinent part that, “The winning party claiming costs must file and file a memorandum of costs within 15 days after the date of mailing of the notice of entry of judgment or dismissal by the clerk under the Code of Civil Procedure section 664.5 or the date of delivery of the written notice of entry of judgment or dismissal, or within 180 days after entry of judgment, whichever comes first.”

The Code of Civil Procedure § 664.5 sets forth the specific requirements for notice of entry of judgment and should be carefully reviewed.

However, I cannot stress enough that in order for a clerk’s notice of entry of judgment to trigger the 15-day timeline, it must comply with Code of Civil Procedure § 664.5. In some cases, a clerk will simply mail a sealed copy of the judgment with an attachment known as a Certificate of Mailing that does not meet the “service pursuant to court order” requirement of Civil Procedure Code subdivision § 664.5. and as The result fails to start the 15-day clock as the California Supreme Court has found in at least two published cases.

Attorneys or parties in California must carefully review any notice of entry of judgment served by the clerk to determine whether or not the clerk served a notice of entry of judgment that fully complies with the provisions of Code of Civil Procedure § 664.5, including a statement that the document sent by the clerk is served by “court order” or “under section 664.5.” If the clerk fails to do so and no other party serves and files a notice of entry of judgment, the deadline to file and serve a notice of costs is 180 days after the entry of judgment.

To view the text of any of the Code of Civil Procedure sections cited in this article, visit http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes.xhtml

To view the text of any California Court Rules cited in this article, visit http://www.courts.ca.gov/cms/rules/index.cfm?title=tres