Legal Question in Civil Litigation in California

On a civil matter in the California Superior Court there is I believe what is called a Doe Amendment or similar where as the plaintiff can ad a defendant to the complaint without having to submit an entirely new Amended Complaint. As in my case I mistakenly left one of the defendants in my original complaint out of my Amended complaint. Is there a form or how do I get this defendant reinstated in my complaint? Or where is this information found?


Asked on 11/04/13, 1:26 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Anthony Roach Law Office of Anthony A. Roach

Doe amendments require several things. First of all, you would have to have plead a cause of action in the original complaint against fictitious defendants, and have them named in the caption. You have to be truly ignorant of the person's identity, not simply just forget to include them in the complaint. Otherwise, you may have a statute of limitation problem when you try to bring someone with a DOE amendment if that person can prove that you knew who they were, and the time has run.

There is no statewide form, but many of the counties have a local form for doing the DOE amendment. I strongly urge you to get some good legal advice before doing this.

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Answered on 11/05/13, 7:45 am


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