If you have received a document called a summons and complaint, it means that the person listed as "Defendant" has been sued. Note that the complaint may also be written on pleading paper in the style of an essay.

There are different ways to be served with a lawsuit, but the most common ways are:

1. Personal service, and

2. Substitute service.

If you are the person being sued and you believe that you were not properly served by either of these methods, but a judgement has not been taken against you yet, you should consider filing the answer because even if you fight and win the battle about proper service, the "Plaintiff", the person suing you, will just serve you properly at the hearing.

You may receive a notice from the court in the mail, or if you are checking the status of your case online, you may see an entry from the court called "Order to Show Cause" (OSC). An OSC is an order from the court telling the recipient that it must explain to the court the matter that is requested in the order. Read the order carefully to understand which party must respond (you are the "Defendant", the party suing you is the "Plaintiff"), and what information the court needs.

Typically, an OSC is issued against the Plaintiff for failure to file proof that the Defendant has been served, and failure to dismiss a case several months after the parties have reached a settlement agreement. The punishment for failing to comply with the OSC can be dismissal of the case, and/or monetary sanctions against the party.

In San Francisco, the court will send the parties a form titled "Order Setting Case Management Conference" on the right hand side of the box that contains the parties' information, just below the case number. All notices from the court should be read carefully because the court lays out very simply what it means. For this form, the body of the text will say:

"This case is set for a case management conference on MON-Day-Year in Department 610 at 10:30 am.

CRC 3.725 requires the filing and service of a case management statement form CM-110 no later than fifteen (15) days before the case management conference. However, it would facilitate the issuance of a case management order without an appearance at the case management conference if the case management statement is filed and served twenty-five (25) days before the case management conference."

This means exactly what it says, the court has set a conference to check on the status of the case on the date listed, at the department listed-610, and at the time listed-10:30 am. It also says that if you serve the case management form on the court and plaintiff at least 25 days before the hearing date listed, the court may be able to issue the order that would result from the conference without an appearance--meaning that you would not have to appear at court. If you serve the statement 25 days before the hearing date, the court will just cancel the hearing and send the parties an order setting the trial date.

In Alameda county, the court will issue the case management conference notice with the filing of the complaint. This means that if you are served later, you may see case management conferences scheduled and “vacated” before you received notice. In Alameda county, the hearing for the case management conference will not be cancelled. You will need to appear, either remotely or in person.

What to expect

1. The hearing is not adversarial. This is only a meeting with the parties and the court to tell the court the status of the case. The court will set the pre-trial conference and trial dates at the first case management conference

2. There may be subsequent status conferences that are the same style of hearing.

3. You will need to fill out a case management statement for the first hearing. See how here.

4. If you, the defendant, do not go to the case management conference hearing, you will not be penalized, but the court may set the case dates for dates that conflict with your future plans. If the Plaintiff does not appear and you do, the court may issue and OSC, but more likely, in Alameda, it will reschedule the conference. If neither party appears, the court may choose to vacate or reschedule.

In both San Francisco and Alameda counties, the court may send you a letter titled "Notice of Time and Place of Trial AND Trial Order". This letter will tell you several things quite plainly. This letter means exactly what it says. Most notably:

1. The case management conference is cancelled-- so you do not need to go to the hearing,

2. The case is set for trial on MON-Day-Year, at 9:30 AM in Department 206-- this is your date, location, and time for trial.

3. If any party objects to the date listed in the order, it must file a written objection with the court and serve all parties, and all attorneys must appear for an objection hearing on the same date and time as the original case management conference--if you want to request a change of date for the trial, you must have a very good reason, it cannot be merely for inconvenience. You will need to make a written request to the court objecting to the date in the order, and you must attend a hearing-- listed in the notice-- for the court to hear your objection.

4. After the date of the original case management conference hearing, all requests for the continuance of the trial (changing the date of the trial) must be sent to the presiding judge-- all requests to change the trial date after the date originally set for the case management conference must be sent to a different department, Dept. 206 instead of the case management department, Dept. 610.

Read the entire letter to understand your requirements for the trial.

The same way that you are required to mail your CMC statement to the court and the Plaintiff, they are required to send theirs to the court and to you as well. If you receive the plaintiff's version of the CMC statement (form CM-110), you do not have to take any action.

Both parties to the case are able to ask the other side questions and request evidence to prove their claims and defense. This is called discovery. You will know that you have received requests for discovery if you have received a large packet of information with different documents that may be titled something similar to: Plaintiff's Request for Admissions, Plaintiff's Request for Admission of Genuineness of Documents, Plaintiff's Request for Production of Documents, Plaintiff's Requests for Special Interrogatories, Plaintiff's Requests for Form Interrogatories.

These require a time sensitive response, and failure to respond in time will result in losing your ability to object to the requests, as well as potentially getting all of the requests for admissions deemed admitted against you. The requesting party will ask for admissions in a way that proves its case, so getting the admissions deemed admitted may ultimately lead to the Plaintiff being able to prove its case and win. You should find help from a legal services provider immediately so that the person has enough time to respond to the requests-- discovery responses can take quite a bit of time.

If you have failed to respond to Requests for Admission within the time limit, the party requesting these admissions can file a motion with the court asking that the admissions that have been requested be deemed, or considered, admitted against you. If the Plaintiff is successful in its motion, all of the requests for admission will be considered admitted, or true, against you, allowing the Plaintiff to easily prove its case in a motion for summary judgment or at trial.

If you receive a notice and motion to deem admitted, you should seek legal assistance immediately to get help opposing the motion. Motions take quite a bit of time to write and file, so if you wait to get help, or if you don't open your mail, there may not be enough time for legal service providers to help you.

You may receive a large packet with several different documents, referencing "Summary Judgement" or "Summary Adjudication". This document is a request by the Plaintiff asking the court to rule on the case (summary judgment), or some of the causes of action that it has sued you for (summary adjudication) in its favor.

A summary judgment is like a trial on paper. When the Plaintiff brings this motion, it is presenting all of its evidence and facts to support its reasons for why the court should rule in its favor and grant it a judgment against you, essentially bringing the case to an end before the trial. Remember, a judgment, whether it is by default, summary, or at trial, is a final ruling by the court deciding the outcome of the case.

Many times, the document will be called Motion for Summary Judgment, or in the alternative, "Summary Adjudication". A summary adjudication is a request by the party bringing it for the court to rule in favor of that party on at least one of the issues, but not all of them, so the case will not be closed, but the issue on adjudication will be decided before the trial on these papers.

If you receive these documents, time is very limited for a response. Opposing a motion for summary judgment or adjudication takes a lot of time, and a lot of facts need to be gathered. Do not delay in reaching out to a legal service provider because this motion can end your case early and against you.

Sometime in the last 60 days before trial, you may receive a document from the Plaintiff called "Notice to Attend Trial". This document is typically short and says something like (with information for San Francisco provided):

"Pursuant to Code of Civil Procedure Section 1987(b), Plaintiff hereby requests that Defendant attend and appear at the trial in the matter commencing on [Date] at [Time] in Department 206 of the San Francisco County Superior Court, located at 400 McAllister St., Rm. 103, San Francisco, CA 94102."

This document means that the recipient named in the notice must go to trial at the location provided, on the date and time specified. Pay very close attention to the date, time, address listed, and compare them to the trial information provided by the court in your case. It is not uncommon for the Plaintiff to make a mistake about the date, time, or place of trial. You should plan to attend the trial based on the notice in the document, even if it is incorrect. If the information is incorrect, as compared to the information provided by the court, you should seek legal services ASAP to see if an attorney can attend the trial on your behalf because the incorrect information is not valid for the correct trial date.

For example, if the notice says to attend on December 12, but the trial is December 13, you should attend on the 12th, even though there will be no trial for you, and your attorney can attend without you on the 13th since you were not given proper notice to attend on the correct date.

Additionally, there are requirements that the party making this request must meet in order for the Notice to Appear to be valid.

If the notice asks for you to come without any documents or evidence, 1) the notice must be mailed no less than 15 days before the date of the appearance, or 2) personally given to you 10 days before the date of the appearance. If the request asks for you to come to the trial with documents or evidence, 1) the notice must be mailed to you no less than 25 days before the date of the appearance, or 2) personally given to you 20 days before the date of the appearance.

If these requirements are not met, the notice is not valid, and it is very important to get an attorney to appear for you in the case so that you do not have to appear at the trial to be asked questions to prove the other side's case.

If the notice is valid because it was served in time, and the dates, time, and location are correct, you are also entitled to a witness fee and mileage before being required to testify. These witness and mileage fees are small, but if the Plaintiff does not give you payment for the fee before you testify, you are not required to testify.

Within the last 60 days before the trial, you may receive a packet of documents from the Plaintiff will one titled something similar to "Declaration in Lieu of Live Testimony". This document is only available in cases where the complaint seeks $25,000 or less. This documents is an affidavit signed under penalty of perjury by the person making the declaration that all the statements in the document are true. The Plaintiff will use this as a way to have a witness validate that the documents attached are admissible as evidence in the case against you. The witness does not have to show up at the trial, instead, the written declaration or affidavit is enough to be considered true.

Still, there are requirements that the Plaintiff must meet in order for this document to be valid. If the Plaintiff does not comply with these requirements, the Declaration in Lieu of Live Testimony is invalid and cannot be used.

Check to see if the Plaintiff has met these requirements. Not meeting any one these makes the declaration invalid and keeps the evidence out of the case resulting in the Plaintiff being unable to prove its case:

1. The document must be mailed at least 30 days before the trial. If the date on the proof of service that comes with the document is within 30 days of the trial, the declaration is not valid, and you should point this out to the court at the trial before the Plaintiff tries to enter the evidence, or in your settlement discussions with the Plaintiff before the trial. Your leverage is that the Plaintiff cannot validate the evidence, so the evidence cannot be entered, and thus it can't be used against you, so the Plaintiff cannot prove its case unless they bring the witness.

2. The affiant (person who is making the affidavit) must have the title of "officer", "director", or "managing agent" if the current address of the affiant is the law office. The law office, or address of the affiant, must be within 150 miles of the place of trial. If the affiant does not have a title that is listed, that person must be personally served, not through the attorney. So check the address for the affiant, and if the affiant is not an "officer", "director", or "managing agent" try to serve (through another person over the age of 18 who is not part of the lawsuit) the affiant with a subpoena to attend the trial in person, but do not give the subpoena to anyone other than the affiant.

3. You (through another person over the age of 18 who is not a party to the lawsuit) must try to personally serve affiant at least 10 days immediately before the date of trial. If you try to serve the affiant who is not an "officer", "director", or "managing agent" personally and that person is not available to personally accept service at the location listed in the declaration, the declaration is invalid and the evidence attached to it cannot be validated and entered to use against you.

Seek the advice of an attorney to help you with this document to determine whether or not you should try to serve the affiant.

If you did not answer the lawsuit in time, the Plaintiff can file a Request for Entry of Judgment. This document will cut off your ability to file an answer. If you have no proof that you were not served, it will be very difficult to undo the request for entry of judgment. Look at the proof of service that is filed in the case (in San Francisco, this can be viewed online; if your court does not have an online option, you will need to go to the clerk's file office in person and look at your case file). If the address served, or description of the person served does not match your information, or you have other proof that you could not be reached at that address, you may have grounds to undo the request.

Contact legal services immediately to get help because you have a limited window of time to deal with this issue. If you miss the window of time, you may never be able to correct this problem and the judgement will be recorded on your credit report. The judgement is good for 10 years, and can be renewed one time for an additional five (5) years.

You may receive a document from the Plaintiff called a "Notice of Renewal of Judgment". This document means that you were previously sued, about 10 years before, resulting in a judgment against you. Sometimes, the judgment was obtained improperly.

If this is the case, you should obtain legal help immediately because a motion to vacate the renewal (essentially a request to the court to undo the renewal and underlying judgment) is complicated and takes a lot of time, and there is a short, 60 day window in which to file this motion. An attorney will need to interview you to get facts about the original service that is listed in the proof of service of summons in the case, and to find out when you first learned about the case. The requirements for these types of motion are specific. Not all people will qualify.

If you get a judgment against you, the Plaintiff can execute the judgment and take certain income from you through a garnishment of your wages and/or levy of your bank account. See more about garnishments and levies here.