Legal Question in Family Law in California

The short answer to your question is "yes," but there is a lot more to it. First you have to deliver copies of all of it to him by a method approved for service of process. If you want it to stick, this means having someone who has no interest in the case personally hand him copies of all the papers. Then that person signs a proper proof of service and you file that with the court. Until all that is done, the clock does not start ticking on any time limits. He has thirty days after he is served to respond. If he does not do so within the time allowed, then you still have more work to do. You have to file papers to take his default and get a default judgment. While all that is happening, he can still respond, though he may have to explain to the court why he didn't do it in the thirty days. Once you get your default papers filed and have a default hearing, THEN you will get a judgment. Even then it is not totally final, because he has a short time to go to court and ask that the default judgment be set aside if he claims he didn't respond due to "mistake, inadvertence or excusable neglect." Once the time to move to set aside the judgment is past, THEN you have a final judgment. EXCEPT, if he was not properly served. If there was a defect in the service, the court never acquired jurisdiction over him and he can have the whole thing set aside and you go back to square one.