Writ of mandate (California)

The writ of mandate is a type of extraordinary writ in the U.S. state of California.[1][2] In California, certain writs are used by the superior courts, courts of appeal and the Supreme Court to command lower bodies, including both courts and administrative agencies, to do or not to do certain things. A writ of mandate may be granted by a court as an order to an inferior tribunal, corporation, board or person, both public and private.[3] Unlike the federal court system, where interlocutory appeals may be taken on a permissive basis and mandamus are usually used to contest recusal decisions, the writ of mandate in California is not restricted to purely ministerial tasks, but can be used to correct any legal error by the trial court. Nonetheless, ordinary writ relief in the Court of Appeal is rarely granted.

Writs are generally divided into two categories: the most common form of writ petition is ordinary mandate, which is a highly informal process mostly governed by advisory rules of court rather than by strict rules or statutes. A separate and much more formalized procedure called administrative mandate is used to review certain decisions by administrative agencies after adjudicatory hearings, and are distinguished from ordinary writ proceedings by the addition of a panoply of statutory requirements.[4] Despite the name, however, ordinary mandate encompasses a wider variety of administrative appeals than administrative mandate does, and an administrative mandate petition may allege ordinary mandate as another cause of action.[5] Many common writ petitions directed towards administrative bodies, such as actions to compel the disclosure of public records,[6] do not share the requirements of administrative mandate as there is no 'adjudicatory hearing'.

  1. ^ Cornell Law School Legal Information Institute, Mandamus
  2. ^ Rothschild, Richard. "Writ of Mandate Outline" (PDF). Legal Aid Association of California. Retrieved May 10, 2021.
  3. ^ Cal. Code of Civil Procedure § 1085
  4. ^ Cal. Code of Civil Procedure § 1094.5
  5. ^ Conlan v. Bonta, 102 Cal.App.4th 745, 751 (2002).
  6. ^ Cal. Government Code § 6259 subd. (a)

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