Legal Question in Employment Law in California

You must file with the court and serve upon the plaintiff's attorney an answer or other responsive pleading within 30 days of service. It would be best to speak with an employment attorney to both explore your defenses and to determine whether you might have counterclaims against your former employer such as unpaid wages, break time, meal time, overtime, discrimination, wrongful termination, etc.

Hire an attorney unless you know how to practice law effectively. If serious about doing so, feel free to contact me. I've been doing these cases for over 20 years. Your attorney may be able to convince the plaintiff to drop or quickly settle the case without extensive litigation, since such cases are difficult to win, and are frequently brought to exert leverage on you or to get you to agree to some limited deal.