Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

I assume you've been served with an unlawful detainer (UD) lawsuit. If you don't file an answer to the summons and complaint, the landlord will get a default judgment, followed by a writ of possession, and the sheriff will be around to carry out the eviction. If you do file and serve an answer to the complaint, there will be a trial and the court will consider the defenses you raised in your answer, plus (perhaps) anything additional you can argue in court.

The most usual defenses available in a UD are defects in the process followed by the landlord, which are usually corrected and the action re-filed. Sometimes there are more fundamental reasons why an eviction should not occur, and the tenant can put a a fact-based rather than procedure-based defense and get a longer-term reprieve.

Whether this will change the outcome in the short run will depend upon whether you win in court. Whether you get a long-term benefit probably depends upon whether you can fix the problem that caused the UD to be filed and served in the first place.