Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in California

Re: ilimited civil lawsiut.

By law a summons must be served within three years or the court may dismiss it. You can make a motion to dismiss if the summons is not served within two years. That would be discretionary decision by the judge. Some jurisdictions have fast-track rules that require shorter time limits, some as few as 60 days. If you are in one of these jurisdictions you can also make a motion to have the case dismissed as the summons was not served timely. The generally have to show some sort of prejudice to your case by having the summons served late. As far as the status conference, the court generally prefers to have all parties present and will usually postpone the status conference if they're not.