The deadlines for filing a notice of appeal in limited jurisdiction civil cases have been clarified by the amendments to the California Rules of Court that took effect at the beginning of 2007. In limited civil cases, decisions are appealed to the appellate division of the superior court and not to the Court of Appeal. If you want to appeal a judgment in a limited civil case, you need to be aware that the deadlines for appealing a decision in a limited civil case are significantly shorter than in unlimited civil cases. The appellate deadlines in appeals in unlimited jurisdiction cases have not changed. In civil appeals, a notice of appeal must be filed within 60 days of the date notice of entry is served by the clerk or by a party or, if no notice was served, within 180 days of the date the appealable judgment or order was entered. (CRC 8.104.) The rules regarding appeals in limited civil cases were previously not clear because the appellate rules had not been amended to reflect the unification of the municipal and superior courts. Courts usually pointed to former Rule 122(a), a 1964 rule for “Appeals from Municipal and Justice Courts in Civil Cases,” and applied that rule to appeals in limited civil cases.
The reorganization of the rules includes new rules specifically applicable to appeals in limited civil cases. Rule 8.751 provides that a notice of appeal must be filed on or before the earliest of (1) 30 days after the clerk mails a notice of entry, (2) 30 days after a party mails a notice of entry, or 90 days after entry of the judgment or appealable order. Under Rule 8.752, if a motion for new trial is filed, the time to file a notice of appeal is extended until 15 days after entry of the order denying the motion or denial of the motion by operation of law, but in no event may the notice of appeal be filed later than 90 days after the date of entry of the judgment. A cross appeal must be filed within 10 days after the trial court clerk mails a notification of the first appeal or within the time period otherwise prescribed by local rules. These short deadlines cannot be extended by the court or by agreement. When appealing in a limited civil case, these deadlines must be honored or your appeal will be dismissed for lack of jurisdiction.