Been served with a lawsuit? You still have time to respond
Every case type below has a real deadline, and every one of them can be answered without a lawyer standing in the room. Find your situation and see exactly what responding involves.
Respond to a Lawsuit
What happens if you don't respond to a California lawsuit
Default judgments are automatic
Miss your deadline and the other side can win the full amount without proving a single fact in court.
Every case has a real, specific deadline
An eviction gives you far less time than a debt lawsuit. Knowing which clock you're on is the first thing to get right.
Responding changes the negotiation
A plaintiff facing a defendant who's answered and prepared has a very different calculation than one facing an empty chair.
Waiting doesn't buy you time. It costs you options.
Respond to a LawsuitWhat it costs to respond to a California lawsuit
Start free, understand your deadline first
- Full guided intake
- Your exact response deadline calculated
- Which defenses likely apply to your case
Prepared and ready before your deadline
- Priced by how much is at stake in your case
- A complete, correctly formatted answer
- Filing and service instructions, before your deadline
A second opinion before you file
- Licensed CA attorney reviews your case
- Strategy call before your deadline
- Advisory only, priced by case size
How a California lawsuit moves through court
Before you decide how to respond, here's what happens after that, start to finish.
Your clock starts
The response window begins the day you're served, not the day you get around to opening the envelope.
You file with the court
Your answer or other responsive filing goes to the court, and a copy gets served on the plaintiff.
The court checks in
A case management conference gets scheduled, generally within several months, to check where both sides stand.
Most cases settle
The rest move toward a trial, where a judge or jury decides based on what both sides filed and argued.
Whatever happens next starts with your response.
Respond to a LawsuitWhat responding to a lawsuit involves
"Respond" isn't one single move. Depending on what's in your paperwork and what actually happened, a response can dispute the facts, challenge the complaint's legal sufficiency, or argue that the case was filed too late to begin with. What you file changes what happens next, so it's worth knowing what's on the table before you pick one.
General denial
You dispute the plaintiff's claims as a whole rather than addressing each one. It's only available in certain cases, depending on how the complaint was filed.
Affirmative defense
It's a reason the claim should still fail even if their version of events is true, like a missed statute of limitations.
Demurrer
It challenges whether the complaint is even legally valid to begin with. It's filed instead of an answer, before the facts get argued.
What's in the paperwork you were served
The summons
This is the official notice that you're being sued, and it spells out your deadline to respond.
The complaint
This lays out the plaintiff's allegations, what they say happened and what they're asking the court for.
The proof of service
This document shows how and when you were served, and it's what your real deadline gets calculated from.
Match what you were served with your exact next step.
Respond to a LawsuitFind the page built for your exact situation
Each one works differently, a different deadline, a different form, a different court. Pick the one that matches what's in your hands.
Have questions? Get all your answers here
Browse real questions from other defendants, organized by case type, before you decide anything.
SueEasy is a self-help legal technology product built by LegalForce RAPC Worldwide, P.C. Using SueEasy does not create an attorney-client relationship and does not provide legal advice. We are not a law firm and cannot represent you in court.