Legal Question in Civil Litigation in California

You need to bring a motion for relief from the default and from the default judgment. There is a good chance you will win this motion if you do it properly -- and if it is not your fault that the plaintiff had the wrong address.

You should hire a lawyer to do this for you if at all possible, since you will only get one shot at it.

Bear in mind that winning the motion is not the same thing as winning the case. If the motion succeeds, you will still have to defend yourself against the lawsuit.

Good luck.

Mr. Hoffman is correct, and I just want to emphasize two points. 1. if the case is one you are going to lose anyway, you are better off negotiating a settlement than fighting the service; since you will just have to go through a lawsuit and get to the same result. 2. Hire an attorney if you can. You have already lost the entire case as far as the court is concerned and you are asking the court to start the whole thing over. You need a pro to do this for you; otherwise see point number 1.

You need to file a motion to set aside the default and any corresponding default judgment. There is a special statute, Code of Civil Procedure section 473.5, which provides for relief from default when service of summons has not resulted in actual notice to a party in time to defend an action. If you decide to file the omtion yourself, you are going to need to set forth with admissible evidence in a declaration and exhibits the fact that you did not reside at the address where the papers were served.