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Civil Procedure,
California Supreme Court

Jan. 9, 2025

Ambiguity Times Three

Statutes can be ambiguous in three ways--semantic, syntactic, and contextual--as illustrated by recent California Supreme Court decisions, each requiring different interpretive approaches to determine legislative intent and resolve legal uncertainty.

Shutter

The word "ambiguity," appropriately, can mean several things. What are they? The three ways that statutes can be ambiguous can be explained through last year's California Supreme Court opinions.

In statutory interpretation, ambiguity plays a facilitating role. Our Supreme Court has often told us that the overarching interpretative goal is to determine the Legislature's intent to effectuate the law's purpose. If there's no ambiguity in a statute's languag...

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