Legal Question in Civil Litigation in California

Although attorneys and the court might call it a special appearance, it is not, legally, a special appearance. A special appearance is when an attorney appears for a party who has not yet generally appeared in the case, and is filing a motion to quash. Therefore, because the party has not yet appeared in the case and is contesting the court's jurisdiction, the attorney is only specially appearing. In answer to your question, the attorney who is appearing for the attorney(s) of record is only responsible for the matter for which he or she has been retained, and is not responsible for the entire case. However, some courts require the appearing attorney to be associated as attorney of record, and therefore the appearing attorney can be held responsible for the conduct of the entire case unless someone files a disassociation of counsel and the attorney is removed from the case by the court.

In addition to what Mr. Cohen stated, there is at least one appellate opinion I have read recently in which the specially appearing attorney was found to have committed malpractice for underlying problems in the case.