Legal Question in Civil Litigation in California

You are corect that a writ of mandate is the method by which the court orders a governmental entity to do or refrain from doing something. There are all sorts of twists and turns to the the rules, however.

If you want to try to go through the process without an attorney, there are practice guides. Look for books like California Pleading & Practice and publications from The Rutter Group.

You need to be aware that, under some circumstance, you need to exhaust your administrative remedies, before you can go to court. Also, inasmuch as you indicated that you are "being personally harmed by" the county's actions, you may have a legitimate case that must be commenced with a "Claim," before you can resort to a court action. Another consideration is the time factors, such as the statutes of limitations and whether you need a judicial determination, right away.

Watch out for the statute of limitations. Usually, you only have 6 months to make a claim. Then, other limitations kick in. Timing can be very important, particularly if you must exhaust administrative remedies and file a claim, before filing a lawsuit or seeking a writ.

Another time factor is the urgency of the requested relief. If, for example, you are trying to stop the county from destroying your building and the destruction is planned for next week, you will need to seek immediate relief. You can do it, but there is an entire new layer of procedures to follow.

For many types of lawsuits, a person can wade his or her way through the system with some luck and study. For your type of action, I suggest that you check with an attorney. There are so many considerations that I cannot address because you have not described the nature of the harm, anything about timing, your position in the matter, and what you want the government offices to do or stop doing. All of these issues are relevant to what you should do next.

Since you didn't say why or what it is that aggrieves you about your local board of supervisors, how is any lawyer supposed to know how to advise you. If the case is important to you, get a lawyer. If you want to play amateur lawyer and start filing your own writs against the county, they deal with people like you all the time. You'll be swatted away like a gnat.