Legal Question in Family Law in California

Re: letter of default

You mean a Request for Entry of Default. That means you have been served with the divorce papers and failed to file any Response within the 30 days following, although no matter when you file a Response, as long as its filed before the Default, even months or years after service, the court will accept it as long as no Request for Default has been submitted.

Beyond that, it means she is moving the case forward to finality. She may get a divorce judgment that includes any requests in the Petition -- so if she's requesting that she get certain property or support, etc. from you, your failure to respond will ultimately lose you those issues. If she is only requesting termination of the marital status and there are no child/financial issues and that's what you want, then fine, just make sure it gets done.