California Rule of Court 3.1700: Memorandum, Deadlines, Motion to Tax

California Rule of Court 3.1700 is the post-judgment rule that lets the winning side in a civil case recover its litigation costs from the loser. The prevailing party files a verified Memorandum of Costs on Judicial Council Form MC-010 within 15 days after service of the notice of entry of judgment or dismissal, or within 180 days after entry of judgment, whichever comes first. The opposing party then has 15 days from service of that memorandum to file a motion to strike or tax costs. If no challenge is filed, the clerk enters the claimed costs directly onto the judgment.¹

Who Can Claim Costs

Only the “prevailing party” can file under Rule 3.1700. Code of Civil Procedure section 1032 defines that term mechanically rather than leaving it to the court’s instinct. You qualify if you are a plaintiff with a net monetary recovery, a defendant who obtained a dismissal, a defendant in a case where no party recovered any relief, or a defendant against a specific plaintiff who recovered nothing from you.²

If you fit one of those categories, costs are yours as a matter of right. The court does not get to second-guess whether you deserve them. When the case does not fit cleanly into any category, such as a mixed-result judgment or non-monetary relief, the court decides who prevailed and whether to award costs at all.²

What You Can Put on the Memorandum

Code of Civil Procedure section 1033.5 sorts litigation expenses into three categories: recoverable by right, not recoverable at all, and discretionary. Only expenses in the first and third categories belong on the MC-010, and even those must have been reasonably necessary to the litigation.

Costs Recoverable as of Right

These items go on the memorandum without needing the court’s permission:³

Filing, motion, and jury fees
Deposition expenses, including video, transcription, interpreter fees, and travel to attend
Service of process by a registered process server or public officer, including stakeout charges
Ordinary witness fees at the statutory per-day rate set by Government Code section 68093
Expert witness fees, but only when the court ordered the expert
Surety bond premiums for bonds required during the case
Court reporter fees as established by statute
Electronic filing fees when the court requires or orders electronic filing

Costs You Cannot Recover

Two exclusions catch litigants off guard. Fees for experts you retained on your own are not recoverable; only experts the court specifically ordered qualify.³ Investigation expenses are also generally off the table unless the court ordered the investigation. Postage, telephone charges, and photocopying (other than exhibits) fall on the non-recoverable side as well.

Discretionary Costs

Models, enlarged exhibits, photocopies of exhibits, and electronic presentation costs may be allowed if they were reasonably helpful to the judge or jury.³ You can list these, but the court evaluates whether they actually aided the decision-maker.

Filing the Memorandum of Costs

Use Judicial Council Form MC-010. The form itemizes each expense by category and requires a verified statement, signed under penalty of perjury, that the costs are correct and were necessarily incurred in the case.⁴

The Deadline

Serve and file the memorandum within 15 days after the date the notice of entry of judgment or dismissal was served on you, or within 180 days after entry of judgment, whichever comes first.¹ The 180-day backstop matters: if nobody serves a notice of entry, the 15-day clock never starts, but you still cannot wait indefinitely. Miss either deadline and your right to recover costs is forfeited entirely.

Watch the trap built into the two-deadline structure. If you are quietly counting on 180 days and the opposing side serves a notice of entry the day after judgment, your window just collapsed to 15 days.

Receipts and Documentation

You do not have to attach receipts or invoices when you file the memorandum. The verified statement is your initial proof. But if the other side challenges your claim, you will need documentation for every disputed line item. Gathering records after a challenge is filed often reveals gaps that end up costing you money, so pull your file together before you sign the verification.

Attorney Fees Usually Do Not Go Here

The MC-010 includes a line for attorney fees, but you can only use it when fees are fixed by contract or statute without needing a court determination.⁵ In most contested cases the fee amount requires judicial calculation, which means a separate noticed motion under California Rule of Court 3.1702, not an entry on the cost memorandum. The attorney fee motion is due by the deadline for filing a notice of appeal, which under most circumstances is 60 days after service of notice of entry of judgment or 180 days after entry, whichever comes first.⁶ Putting attorney fees on the wrong track is a common and expensive mistake.

Challenging the Costs With a Motion to Strike or Tax

If costs have been claimed against you, Rule 3.1700(b) is your tool for pushing back. File a motion to strike or tax costs, served and filed within 15 days after the memorandum of costs was served on you.¹ Miss that window and the costs go through unchallenged.

How the Motion Must Be Written

Unless you are objecting to the entire memorandum, the motion must reference each disputed item by the same number and in the same order it appears on the MC-010, and must state why each item is objectionable.¹ A general complaint that the claimed costs are “unreasonable” will not work. The objection has to be tied to specific line items.

The grounds that actually move the needle are the ones built into section 1033.5: the expense was not reasonably necessary to the litigation, it was incurred for the attorney’s convenience rather than case preparation, or it falls into a category the statute lists as non-recoverable (an expert you hired on your own, say, rather than one the court ordered).

Who Has to Prove What

The verified memorandum of costs creates a presumption that the claimed amounts are correct. When the opposing party files a proper, item-specific challenge, the burden shifts to the party claiming costs to justify those specific items with documentation. A motion that makes only general complaints without targeting individual entries does not shift the burden at all; the original presumption stays intact and the costs stand.

What Happens After the Dust Settles

If no motion to strike or tax is filed within 15 days, or once the court rules on a motion that was filed, the clerk enters the approved costs directly onto the judgment.¹ From that point the costs are part of the enforceable judgment and are collectible using the same mechanisms available for the underlying damages.

One Thing That Can Flip the Whole Calculation

Before you file, check whether a Code of Civil Procedure section 998 offer was made and rejected during the case. A rejected 998 offer can turn the normal cost rules upside down. If a defendant made a written 998 offer and the plaintiff failed to obtain a more favorable judgment, the plaintiff loses the right to recover any post-offer costs and must pay the defendant’s post-offer costs, and the court may order the plaintiff to pay the defendant’s expert witness fees even though those are not normally recoverable. The mechanism runs in both directions: a plaintiff who makes a 998 offer the defendant rejects, and then obtains a more favorable result, can likewise shift post-offer expert fees onto the defendant.⁷ If you were on the wrong side of a 998 offer, your memorandum of costs looks very different, and so does your exposure to the other side’s.

1
Judicial Branch of California. California Rules of Court 3.1700 – Prejudgment Costs
2
California Legislative Information. California Code of Civil Procedure Section 1032
3
California Legislative Information. California Code of Civil Procedure Section 1033.5
4
Judicial Branch of California. Memorandum of Costs (Summary)
5
Judicial Council of California. Memorandum of Costs (Summary)
6
Judicial Branch of California. California Rules of Court 3.1702 – Claiming Attorneys Fees
7
California Legislative Information. California Code of Civil Procedure Section 998