An ex parte application for a stay of execution in California is an emergency court request asking a judge to pause enforcement of a judgment, such as a bank levy, sheriff’s lockout, or wage garnishment, on dramatically shortened notice. You prepare a packet of pleadings, notify the opposing party by 10:00 a.m. the court day before the hearing, pay a $60 filing fee in most superior courts, and convince the judge that waiting for a regular motion would cause irreparable harm.
When Ex Parte Is the Right Path
A regularly noticed motion in California requires at least 16 court days of advance notice, plus extra days for service by mail. Factor in the court’s calendar and the hearing can be a month out. If the levying officer is coming next Tuesday, that timeline is useless. The ex parte process compresses it to as little as one court day.
Judges know the other side has barely any time to respond, so they scrutinize these applications more carefully than standard motions. Any stay granted ex parte is almost always temporary, lasting only until a noticed hearing can be held with both sides fully heard.
The Irreparable Harm Standard
California Rules of Court, Rule 3.1202(c) sets the threshold. Your application must include a sworn declaration based on personal knowledge showing irreparable harm, immediate danger, or another statutory basis for emergency relief.1Judicial Branch of California. California Rules of Court Rule 3.1202 – Contents of Application Irreparable harm means damage that money cannot fix after the fact, or that would be extremely difficult to reverse. A sheriff’s lockout that puts your family on the street, or a bank levy that causes you to default on your mortgage, can qualify. General inconvenience or financial difficulty, standing alone, usually will not.
If you have filed any previous ex parte applications in the same case that were denied, you must disclose every one of them and explain what the court did. Omitting an earlier rejection can sink an otherwise strong request.
Legal Grounds for the Stay
California Code of Civil Procedure section 918 gives trial courts broad discretionary authority to stay enforcement of any judgment or order, whether or not you have filed an appeal.2California Legislative Information. California Code CCP – 918 A few scenarios drive most ex parte stay requests.
You have filed, or intend to file, a motion to vacate the judgment under CCP 473 or CCP 663, and enforcement would make that motion meaningless if the sheriff acts before it is heard.
You have appealed, or plan to. Section 918(b) limits the court’s power in this situation: without the other side’s consent, the judge cannot keep the stay in place for more than 10 days beyond the last date to file a notice of appeal. After that window, you generally need to post a bond.2California Legislative Information. California Code CCP – 918
You filed a claim of exemption on a wage garnishment for a personal debt and the court cannot schedule your hearing within 30 days. CCP 706.105 actually requires the court to grant a stay on ex parte application in that situation, making it one of the few scenarios where the stay is not purely discretionary.3California Legislative Information. California Code CCP – 706.105
Your application has to identify which ground applies. A vague request for more time will not work. The judge needs to see a specific enforcement action, a specific legal basis for stopping it, and a specific reason why waiting for a regular hearing would cause irreparable harm.
The Documents in the Packet
No single Judicial Council form covers this. You assemble a packet, drafting most of it yourself on pleading paper. It has four parts.
The Ex Parte Application
This is the lead document. Identify yourself, the case number, the judgment at issue, and the specific relief you want. State the exact enforcement action you need stopped: the date a bank levy notice arrived, the scheduled date of a sheriff’s lockout, or the next payroll date a garnishment will hit. Include the judgment amount and when it was entered. Say how many days of stay you are asking for and why that is enough time for the court to hold a full hearing.
Rule 3.1202(a) requires you to list the name, address, email, and phone number of every attorney you know to be involved. If the other side is self-represented, list that party’s contact information if you have it.1Judicial Branch of California. California Rules of Court Rule 3.1202 – Contents of Application
The Supporting Declaration
Signed under penalty of perjury, this is where you prove irreparable harm with concrete facts. Dates, dollar amounts, and real-world consequences. When you received the levy notice, how much is at stake, what happens to your housing or medical care if the money is seized, and why you could not have sought relief sooner through a regular motion. “I will suffer hardship” carries no weight on its own.
The Memorandum of Points and Authorities
Your legal argument. Cite the code sections that authorize the stay (CCP 918, CCP 706.105, or whichever applies) and tie each one to the facts in your declaration. Keep it short. Ex parte hearings move fast.
The Proposed Order
Draft a written order ready for the judge’s signature, with lines for the date, the duration of the stay, and any conditions such as a bond or a follow-up hearing. A signed order gets the stay to the levying officer immediately; a judge who has to wait for you to draft one may lose patience.
Notifying the Other Side
Ex parte does not mean secret. California Rules of Court, Rule 3.1203 requires you to notify every other party no later than 10:00 a.m. the court day before your ex parte hearing.4Judicial Branch of California. California Rules of Court Rule 3.1203 – Time of Notice to Other Parties The notice must state the relief you are seeking and the date, time, and location of the hearing.
You then file a Declaration Regarding Notice as part of the packet. Rule 3.1204 spells out what it must contain: the date and time you gave notice, how you delivered it (phone, email, personal service), who you spoke with, what they said, and whether you expect opposition.5Judicial Branch of California. California Rules of Court Rule 3.1204 – Contents of Notice and Declaration Regarding Notice
If notice went out after the 10:00 a.m. deadline, your declaration must explain the exceptional circumstances that made earlier notice impossible. Skipping this is one of the fastest ways to get the application tossed before the judge reads the substance.
Filing and the Hearing
Once the packet is assembled and the opposing party has been notified, file it with the court clerk. The filing fee in California superior court is $60. If you cannot afford it, apply for a fee waiver using Judicial Council Form FW-001.
Ex parte hearings usually run first thing in the morning in a designated department. Practices vary, so check your local court’s website. Some courts hear ex parte matters at 8:30 a.m., others at 9:00 a.m. Some require courtesy copies delivered to the judge’s department ahead of the hearing.
Be ready to summarize your situation in a few minutes. The judge may ask why you did not act sooner, what bond you can offer, and what happens to the other side’s rights if enforcement is paused. The opposing party may appear and argue against the stay. Bring extra copies of everything.
If the Stay Is Granted
Get the signed order to the right people immediately. If the sheriff or marshal is the levying officer, deliver a certified copy to their office. If a bank levy is involved, you may need to provide the order to the bank as well. Levying officers act on their existing instructions until a court order tells them to stop.
The stay will almost always be temporary and will usually include a date for a follow-up noticed hearing. File your underlying motion, whether to vacate the judgment, for a new trial, or for whatever other relief you are pursuing, before that date. If you do not, the stay dissolves and enforcement resumes.
If the Stay Is Denied
A denial is not the end. You can still file a regularly noticed motion for a stay, giving the other side the standard 16 court days of notice. That route gives you more time to develop arguments and submit evidence, and the bar is lower because the other side has full opportunity to be heard.
If the underlying judgment is for money and you are appealing, you can skip the discretionary process entirely by posting a bond under CCP 917.1. Filing the bond automatically stays enforcement without a judge’s approval.6California Legislative Information. California Code CCP – 917.1 A surety-issued bond must equal one and a half times the judgment; a personal undertaking must equal double. For large judgments the bond requirement alone can make an appeal impractical, which is why some debtors use an ex parte stay under CCP 918 as a shorter-term bridge while they look at options.
One other alternative to know about, even though it reaches far beyond a single judgment: filing a bankruptcy petition triggers an automatic stay under 11 U.S.C. § 362 that halts nearly all collection activity the moment the petition is filed.7Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 U.S.C. 362 – Automatic Stay It is far broader than a CCP 918 stay, but carries long-term consequences for your credit and your control over your assets, and the stay can be limited or unavailable if you have filed multiple bankruptcies recently.8Central District of California United States Bankruptcy Court. Automatic Stay, What Is It and Does It Protect a Debtor From All Creditors? Treat it as a last resort, not a workaround for a single enforcement action.