Writ relief is notoriously hard to get—90 percent of writ petitions are denied. But that, it turns out, is by design. In Omaha Indemnity Co. v. Superior Court, one of the seminal opinions on writ relief, Justice Arthur Gilbert explained “[w]rit relief, if it were granted at the drop of a hat, would interfere with an orderly administration of justice at the trial and appellate levels.” Too “lax” a view of the extraordinary nature of writs runs the “risk of fostering the delay of trials, vexing litigants and trial courts with multiple proceedings, and adding to the delay of judgment appeals pending in the appellate court.”

A writ petition is an isolated sliver of the larger litigation. The first petition in a case might be filed upon the denial of a motion to quash service. At that very early stage in the proceedings, the ultimate issues are uncertain and the final parties unknown. Even a writ petition arising much later, such as one challenging the denial of an in limine motion, does not present a complete picture to the Court of Appeal: the only brief that is before the appellate court is petitioner’s, and the only record is the set of exhibits prepared by petitioner. And a petition is “cutting in line,” jumping ahead of all the appeals waiting their turn for decision. These factors all mean that the Court of Appeal will not consider a petition unless it has a compelling reason to do so.