Legal Question in Civil Litigation in California
I filed a Default in a County court in California against a Defendant who never responded to my Complaint.
I never received confirmation from the County court of the Default or any response whatsoever from the Court regarding my Default filing. What are the next steps that I need to take to ensure that the Default takes effect? Is the Court supposed to send back a confirmation of the Default? Thank you for your assistance.
2 Answers from Attorneys
You need to contact the court and determine the status of the clerk's entry of default. The rules of court and local rules often require submission of a default judgment package in a short period after the default has been entered so you need to watch that timeline as well.
Ordinarily the party who files a document also submits copies for the clerk to stamp "filed", along with a postage-paid return envelope. Courts won't make copies for you if you fail to provide them, and most won't mail copies to you at their expense. If you didn't submit these extra copies, there's a good chance your default was processed already.
Of course, there's also a good chance that it was rejected because you made a mistake. Even attorneys sometimes find it difficult to get a default entered. A layperson who doesn't know the ropes is even more likely to get something wrong.
Related Questions & Answers
-
I sue foro retail discrimination/harrasement Can Asked 1/16/12, 7:45 pm in United States California General Civil Litigation