Legal Question in Civil Litigation in California

It depends. If the lending of money somehow has ties with California (i.e., the agreement was made here, the money came from a CA bank) then you would need to hire a CA attorney and defend the suit.

If you have been sued in a California court, then you need to defend yourself in that court. A Florida lawyer might be able to do that, but only if she is also licensed in California or hires a California lawyer to work with her on the case. She would also have to travel cross-country on your behalf -- perhaps many times. Hiring a California lawyer makes much more sense.

Hoffman is right, Jefferson wrong. The suit is in California. Therefore you must have a California licensed attorney deal with it. Depending on the details of the case, however, you may be able to have it dismissed in California and force the plaintiff to file it in Florida instead. The one thing you must not do, however, is ignore this. You only have 30 days from when you were served in order to file some form of response in California, or you may have a judgment entered against you by default. If you would like to discuss the details and what options you might have, please feel free to give me a call. My initial consultations whether by phone or in person are always free.

Your options include filing a motion to 'quash' service if it was improper, or to attempt settlement without litigation, or to file your Answer or other pleadings on the merits. If this is in Souther CA, and you're serious about getting counsel, feel free to contact me.

Under any circumstances you will need an attorney in California. Whether you constest just the service of the summons or other jurisdictional issues, or the debt itself, you have to do something with respect to the court case her. If you do nothing, your Grandfather will get a "default" judgment against you, which he can then take to Florida to try and enforce.