Civil Procedure

Few procedural rulings get cited as often — or as loosely — as URS Corp. v. Atkinson/Walsh Joint Venture (2017) 15 Cal.App.5th 872. Litigators invoke it constantly whenever an attorney disqualification order gets appealed, but the case is frequently misread as staying far more than it actually does. Understanding what the court actually held is essential for anyone navigating a disqualification appeal — especially when statutory deadlines like the five-year prosecution rule a

California's "five-year rule" is one of the most unforgiving deadlines in civil litigation. Under Code of Civil Procedure sections 583.310 and 583.360, a plaintiff must bring a case to trial within five years of filing, or the case must be dismissed — not as a discretionary sanction, but as a mandatory, jurisdictional consequence. Courts have no power to excuse it once it expires, no matter how close a case is to trial or how sympathetic the underlying facts may be. A recent