Civil Procedure

Imagine your business gets hurt in a bad fire. You have fire insurance to help you rebuild. You expect your insurance company to help you get back on your feet. Instead, the insurance company starts acting like you committed a crime. They try to trick you so they do not have to pay a single dollar. That is what happened in a famous 1973 California court case called Gruenberg v. Aetna Insurance Co. What Happened in the Case? A man named Jerome Gruenberg owned a restaurant and

When someone makes an oral agreement or a joint promise to leave their property to specific family members (like nieces and nephews) in their will, but later changes their mind and creates a new will or trust cutting those family members out, it triggers a major legal battle. However, trying to solve that fight in the wrong courtroom can get your case thrown out immediately. In Estate of Mullins (1988) 206 Cal. App. 3d 924, a California appellate court clarified a crucial jur

If you are dealing with a specialized tenancy—like a houseboat in a marina—standard eviction rules can get complicated very quickly. Landlords and tenants often clash over what kind of pre-filing notice is legally required before an unlawful detainer lawsuit can even begin. In Parsons v. Superior Court, a California appellate court tackled how tenants can challenge defective eviction notices when the dispute requires looking at evidence outside the paperwork itself. The Big M

If you are a tenant facing an eviction, or a landlord seeking to recover possession of property, it is important to understand what a motion to quash can and cannot accomplish in an unlawful detainer case. For years, some litigants relied on language from older cases to argue that a motion to quash service of summons could be used to attack defects in an unlawful detainer complaint or challenge whether the complaint stated a valid cause of action. In Stancil v. Superior Court

Imagine you get sued. You hire a lawyer. Your lawyer is busy, or sick, or simply misses a deadline to file your response. The other side notices. Instead of picking up the phone, they rush to the court and ask for an automatic win. A few months later, you learn you owe a large sum of money. You never got a chance to tell your side of the story. That situation happens more often than most people think. The good news is that California courts have made it clear that this kind o

When a California corporation cannot be found, a plaintiff may ask the court for permission to serve it through the Secretary of State. But a court will grant that permission only after the plaintiff proves it really tried to find the company first. The Rule Today Under Corporations Code section 1702, a plaintiff may serve a corporation through the Secretary of State only if two things happen. First, the plaintiff must show by affidavit that the corporation could not be serve

What happens if your lawyer disappears and your case is dismissed without your knowledge? This case offers protection to clients in that situation. What Happened Dr. Delbert Aldrich, a dentist, was seriously injured in a car accident. He hired a lawyer, who filed a lawsuit and then stopped working on it. The lawyer never answered the other side's written questions. Without telling his client, he was suspended from practicing law in July 1981. A month later, the court dismisse

California's Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) protects workers who complain about discrimination or harassment. But who can be held responsible when an employer retaliates against them? What Happened Scott Jones worked as a restaurant manager at a La Jolla hotel. He complained about offensive jokes and comments by his supervisor and others. He said that afterward his supervisor wrote him up, excluded him from meetings, and pushed him out. A jury awarded him about $1.4 m

What can you do if a process server falsely claims to have served you, and you lose a lawsuit because of it? What Happened An attorney named Karl Kappel was sued by a former client. A process server signed a declaration under penalty of perjury saying he had personally handed Kappel the papers. Kappel said that never happened. He was working in another county that day. Because the court believed the declaration, it entered a default against Kappel. The former client won about

A False Proof of Service Can Undo a Default: Munoz v. Lopez (1969) What if a default judgment was entered based on a proof of service that simply was not true? This older case gives a clear answer. What Happened Clients sued their former lawyer for malpractice. The lawyer had left California. The clients filed a document claiming he had been personally served. The document was obviously flawed: it claimed service in Los Angeles County at an address in Mexico City. The lawyer

A $70 filing-fee error led to a $200,000 judgment. The California Supreme Court stepped in. What Happened Two Arizona residents were sued in Los Angeles. They chose to represent themselves. A friend who was a lawyer called the court clerk to ask about the filing fee. The clerk said $89. That was the fee for one defendant. Two defendants owed $159. The clerk's office rejected their answer for the wrong fee. By the time they refiled with the right amount, they were eight days l

Small business owners often ask whether they can represent their own corporation in court. In most California courts, the answer is no. This 1978 case explains why. What Happened A company sued Merco Construction Engineers for breach of contract in municipal court. Merco tried to defend itself through its treasurer, who was not a lawyer. At the time, a state statute said a corporation could appear in municipal court through an officer or employee. The other side objected, and

Actual Notice Is Not Enough: Summers v. McClanahan (2006) Many people assume that if a defendant somehow learns about a lawsuit, the lawsuit was properly served. California law says otherwise. What Happened Dirk Summers sued a former business partner for defamation. Instead of serving her directly, his lawyer left the papers at the office of her personal manager. The manager forwarded them to the defendant's attorney. The defendant did not respond, and the court entered a $3.

Imagine finding out your paycheck is being garnished for a lawsuit you never knew existed. That is what happened to Cory Hoehn. In 2024, the California Supreme Court used his case to change an important rule. What Happened In 2009, a fire destroyed the apartment building where Hoehn rented a unit. The building's insurance company blamed careless smoking and sued Hoehn in 2010. The process server said he left the papers with Hoehn's "girlfriend" and "co-occupant." Hoehn later

If you are in a lawsuit in California, the other side will probably send you written questions and requests. Lawyers call this "discovery." Your answers have to come with a signed statement, swearing that the answers are true. Lawyers call that signed statement a "verification." Today, most people sign documents with a click or a tap. You e-sign apartment leases, car loans, and job forms all the time. So you might assume you can e-sign your discovery verification too. That as

Sometimes the most important ruling in a case is the one nobody actually wrote down. In Aaronoff v. Martinez-Senftner, a 2006 California appeals court decision, one of the quieter but genuinely useful lessons has nothing to do with the sad facts of the case itself — it's about a courtroom tool called "judicial notice," and what happens when a trial court uses it but never says so out loud. A Quick Refresher: What Is Judicial Notice? Judicial notice is a shortcut courts use fo

In 2002, California lawmakers did something unusual: they opened a one-year window allowing certain old childhood sexual abuse claims — cases that had already expired under the normal filing deadlines — to be filed again. But that window wasn't open to everyone, for every kind of claim. A 2006 California appeals court decision, Aaronoff v. Martinez-Senftner, drew a sharp line around exactly who could walk through it. The Background A woman (referred to in court records simply

Imagine you start an argument with someone. Every time they prove you are wrong, instead of backing down, you change your story slightly and force them to prove you wrong all over again. When the argument is finally over, can you turn around and complain: "Hey, why did you spend so much time arguing with me?" According to a California appeals court in Nasey v. Fell Holdings LLC (2026), the answer is a firm no. What Happened in the Case? Laurence Nasey ran businesses out of tw

Imagine you own a small business in San Diego, and a big company based in San Francisco breaks a contract with you. Do you have to pack your bags, hire a lawyer 500 miles away, and sue them in San Francisco? Or can you make them come to your hometown court? In the legal world, deciding which county's court gets to hear a lawsuit is called venue. In California, regular people usually have to be sued where they live. But corporations play by different rules. Under California la

What Happened On May 28, 2026, the California Supreme Court issued a major ruling that changes the rules around one of the most powerful — and most abused — tools in California litigation: Code of Civil Procedure section 170.6, the "peremptory challenge" that lets any party kick a judge off their case, no questions asked, no reasons required. The case is J.O. v. Superior Court, and the headline is simple: courts can now look behind a mass pattern of judge challenges and ask w