Legal Question in Business Law in California

Who's the judge?? He or she will not be happy if the defendant fails to appear again, and will issue monetary sanctions, and possibly more. Your attorney should file a motion to strike the defendant's answer and have a default judgment entered.

I don't agree with Mr. Browning's analysis.

The lawyer who is going to try the case must attend the MSC. In addition to trial counsel, the parties and persons with authority to settle the case are required to attend. "Trial counsel, parties, and persons with full authority to settle the case must personally attend the conference, unless excused by the court for good cause." (Cal. Rules of Court, rule 3.1380 subd. (b).)

Failure of the trial attorney or party to appear does not give you grounds to strike the answer and have a default entered. A violation of Cal. Rules of Court, rule 3.1380 is punished by sanctions. "In addition to any other sanctions permitted by law, the court may order a person, after written notice and an opportunity to be heard, to pay reasonable monetary sanctions to the court or an aggrieved person, or both, for failure without good cause to comply with the applicable rules." (Cal. Rules of court, rule 2.30 subd. (b).) "In addition to the sanctions awardable under (b), the court may order the person who has violated an applicable rule to pay to the party aggrieved by the violation that party's reasonable expenses, including reasonable attorney's fees and costs, incurred in connection with the motion for sanctions or the order to show cause. (Cal. Rules of court, rule 2.30 subd. (d).)

Parties are not punished by doomsday sanctions when the failure to comply with the rules is the fault of the party's attorney, and not the party.

Mr. Roach is correct here. The likely outcome is monetary sanctions.

I'd guess around $500.