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Here is the text we could read:

SC-120

Defendant’s Claim and ORDER 
to Go to Small Claims Court

Clerk stamps date here when form is filed.

Notice to the person being sued:
• You are being sued by the person you are suing.

• You must go to court on the trial date listed below. If you do not go to court, 

you may lose the case. 

•

If you lose, the court can order that your wages, money, or property be taken 
to pay this claim.

• Bring witnesses, receipts, and any evidence you need to prove your case.

• Read this form and all pages attached, to understand the claim against you 

and to protect your rights.

Aviso al demandado:
• La persona que ha demandado lo está demandando a usted.

• Tiene que presentarse a la corte en la fecha de su juicio indicada a 

continuación. Si no se presenta, puede perder el caso.

• Si pierde el caso la corte puede ordenar que le quiten de su sueldo, dinero u 

otros bienes para pagar este reclamo.

• Lleve testigos, recibos y cualquier otra prueba que necesite para probar su 

•

caso.
Lea este formulario y todas las páginas adjuntas, para entender la demanda 
en su contra y para proteger sus derechos.

The people in  1 and 2 must go to court: (Clerk fills out section below.)

Order to Go to Court

Fill in court name and street address:

Superior Court of California, County of

Fill in case number and case name:

Case Number:

Case Name:

Date

Time

Department

Name and address of court if different from above

Trial 
Date

1.

2.

3.

Date:

Clerk, by ________________________________ , Deputy

Instructions for the person suing:
• Before you fill out this form, read Form SC-100-INFO, Information for the Plaintiff, to know your rights. Get  

SC-100-INFO at any courthouse or county law library, or go to: www.courtinfo.ca.gov/forms

• Fill out pages 2 and 3 of this form. Then make copies of all pages of this form. (Make 1 copy for each party named in 
this case and an extra copy for yourself.) Take or mail the original and these copies to the court clerk’s office and pay 
the filing fee. The clerk will write the date of your trial in the box above.

• You must have someone at least 18—not you or anyone else listed in this case—give each Plaintiff a court-stamped 
copy of all 3 pages of this form and any pages this form tells you to attach. There are special rules for “serving,” or 
delivering, this form to public entities, associations, and some businesses. See Forms SC-104, SC-104B, and   
SC-104C.

• Go to court on your trial date listed above. Bring witnesses, receipts, and any evidence you need to prove your case.

Judicial Council of California,  
Revised January 1, 2011, Mandatory Form 
Code of Civil Procedure, § 116.110 et seq.

www.courts.ca.gov

Defendant’s Claim and ORDER to Go to 
Small Claims Court 
(Small Claims)

SC-120, Page 1 of 3

Defendant (list names):

Case Number:

1 The Plaintiff (the person, business, or public entity that sued first) is: 

Name:
Street address: 

Street

Mailing address (if different): 

City

State

Zip

Street

City

State

Zip

If more than one Plaintiff, list next Plaintiff here:
Name:
Street address: 

Street

Mailing address (if different): 

City

State

Zip

Street

City

State

Zip

Check here if more than 2 Plaintiffs and attach Form SC-120A. 
Check here if any Plaintiff is on active military duty and write his or her name here:

2 The Defendant (the person, business, or public entity suing now) is:

Name:
Street address: 

Street

Mailing address (if different): 

City

State

Zip

Street

City

State

Zip

If more than one Defendant, list next Defendant here:
Name:
Street address: 

Street

Mailing address (if different): 

City

State

Zip

Street

City

State

Zip

Check here if more than 2 Defendants and attach Form SC-120A.
Check here if either Defendant listed above is doing business under a fictitious name. If so, attach Form 
SC-103. 

3 The Defendant claims the Plaintiff owes $

. (Explain below):

a. Why does the Plaintiff owe the Defendant money? 

Phone:

Phone:

Phone:

Phone:

b. When did this happen? (Date):

If no specific date, give the time period:  Date started:

Through:

c. How did you calculate the money owed to you? (Do not include court costs or fees for service.)

Check here if you need more space. Attach one sheet of paper or Form MC-031 and write “SC-120, Item 3” 
at the top.

Revised January 1, 2011

SC-120, Page 2 of 3

Defendant’s Claim and ORDER to Go to 
Small Claims Court 
(Small Claims)

Defendant (list names):

Case Number:

4 You may ask the Plaintiff (in person, in writing, or by phone) to pay you before you sue. 

Have you done this?

Yes 

No

5

Is your claim about an attorney-client fee dispute?

Yes 

No

If yes, and if you have had arbitration, fill out Form SC-101, attach it to this form, and check here:

6 Are you suing a public entity?

Yes 

No

If yes, you must file a written claim with the public entity first.          A claim was filed on (date):  
If the public entity denies your claim or does not answer within the time allowed by law, you can file this form.

7 Have you filed more than 12 other small claims within the last 12 months in California? 

Yes 

No

 If yes, the filing fee for this case will be higher.

I understand that by filing a claim in small claims court, I have no right to appeal this claim. 

If I do not have enough money to pay for filing fees or service, I can ask the court to waive those fees. 

10 I have not filed, and understand that I cannot file, more than two small claims cases for more than $2,500 in 

California during this calendar year.

I declare, under penalty of perjury under California State law, that the information above and on any attachments to  
this form is true and correct.

8

9

Date: 

Date: 

Defendant types or prints name here

Defendant signs here

Second Defendant types or prints name here Second Defendant signs here

Requests for Accommodations  
Assistive listening systems, computer-assisted, real-time captioning, or sign language interpreter 
services are available if you ask at least five days before the trial. Contact the clerk’s office or go to 
www.courtinfo.ca.gov/forms for Request for Accommodations by Persons With Disabilities and 
Response (form MC-410). (Civil Code, § 54.8.)

Need help?
Your county’s Small Claims Advisor can help for free.

?

Or go to “County-Specific Court Information” at: 
www.courtinfo.ca.gov/selfhelp/smallclaims

Revised January 1, 2011

SC-120, Page 3 of 3

Defendant’s Claim and ORDER to Go to 
Small Claims Court 
(Small Claims)

Defendant's Claim and ORDER to Go to Small Claims Court

This info page is part of the LIT Lab's Form Explorer project. It is not associated with the California state courts. To learn more about the project, check out our about page.

Downloads: You can download both the original form (last checked 2023-03) and the machine-processed form with normalized data fields.

About This Form:

Sourced from selfhelp.courts.ca.gov (2023-03)
Page(s): 3
Fields(s): 87
Average fields per page: 29
Reading Level: Grade 7
LIST Grouping(s): CO-00-00-00-00, CO-07-00-00-00.

Use our Rate My PDF tool to learn more. Go beyond the above insights and learn more about this or any pdf form at RateMyPDF.com, includes: counts of difficult words used, passive voice decetion, and suggestions for how to make the form more usable.

Identified Data Fields:

We have done our best to automaticly identify and name form fields according to our naming conventions. When possible, we've used names tied to our question library. See e.g., user1_name. If we think we've found a match to a question in our library, it is highlighted in green. Novel names are auto generated. So, you will probably need to edit some of them if you're trying to stick to the convention.

Here are the fields we could identify.

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c_page_court_info_case_name was SC-120[0].Page1[0].CourtInfo[0].CaseName_ft[0] (0.39 conf)
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c_page_list_item_plaintiff__1 was SC-120[0].Page2[0].List1[0].item1[0].Plaintiff2Adress[0] (0.37 conf)
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page_list_item_plaintiff_state__1 was SC-120[0].Page2[0].List1[0].item1[0].Plaintiff2State[0] (0.37 conf)
c_page_list_item_plaintiff_zip__1 was SC-120[0].Page2[0].List1[0].item1[0].Plaintiff2Zip[0] (0.37 conf)
c_page_list_item_mail__1 was SC-120[0].Page2[0].List1[0].item1[0].Plaintiff2MailAdress[0] (0.43 conf)
page_list_item_mail_city__1 was SC-120[0].Page2[0].List1[0].item1[0].Plaintiff2MailCity[0] (0.43 conf)
page_list_item_mail_state__1 was SC-120[0].Page2[0].List1[0].item1[0].Plaintiff2MailState[0] (0.43 conf)
c_page_list_item_plaintiff_mail__1 was SC-120[0].Page2[0].List1[0].item1[0].Plaintiff2MailZip[0] (0.43 conf)
c_page_list_item_fill_text__1 was SC-120[0].Page2[0].List1[0].item1[0].FillText19[0] (0.38 conf)
c_page_list_item_fill_text__2 was SC-120[0].Page2[0].List1[0].item1[0].FillText7[0] (0.38 conf)
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page_list_item_plaintiff_state__2 was SC-120[0].Page2[0].List1[0].item1[0].PlaintiffState[0] (0.38 conf)
c_page_list_item_plaintiff_zip__2 was SC-120[0].Page2[0].List1[0].item1[0].PlaintiffZip[0] (0.38 conf)
c_page_list_item_mail__2 was SC-120[0].Page2[0].List1[0].item1[0].PlaintiffMailAdress[0] (0.43 conf)
page_list_item_mail_city__2 was SC-120[0].Page2[0].List1[0].item1[0].PlaintiffMailCity[0] (0.43 conf)
page_list_item_mail_state__2 was SC-120[0].Page2[0].List1[0].item1[0].PlaintiffMailState[0] (0.43 conf)
c_page_list_item_plaintiff_mail__2 was SC-120[0].Page2[0].List1[0].item1[0].PlaintiffMailZip[0] (0.43 conf)
c_page_list_item_check_box__1 was SC-120[0].Page2[0].List1[0].item1[0].CheckBox01[0] (0.39 conf)
c_page_list_item_check_box__2 was SC-120[0].Page2[0].List1[0].item1[0].CheckBox02[0] (0.39 conf)
c_page_list_item_plaintiff_name was SC-120[0].Page2[0].List1[0].item1[0].PlaintiffMilName[0] (0.35 conf)
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c_page_list_item_def_phone__1 was SC-120[0].Page2[0].List2[0].item2[0].DefPhone[0] (0.38 conf)
c_page_list_item_def_address__1 was SC-120[0].Page2[0].List2[0].item2[0].DefAddress[0] (0.38 conf)
c_page_list_item_def_city__1 was SC-120[0].Page2[0].List2[0].item2[0].DefCity[0] (0.38 conf)
c_page_list_item_def_state__1 was SC-120[0].Page2[0].List2[0].item2[0].DefState[0] (0.38 conf)
c_page_list_item_def_zip__1 was SC-120[0].Page2[0].List2[0].item2[0].DefZip[0] (0.38 conf)
c_page_list_item_def_mail__1 was SC-120[0].Page2[0].List2[0].item2[0].DefMailAdress[0] (0.42 conf)
page_list_item_def_mail_city__1 was SC-120[0].Page2[0].List2[0].item2[0].DefMailCity[0] (0.42 conf)
page_list_item_def_mail_state__1 was SC-120[0].Page2[0].List2[0].item2[0].DefMailState[0] (0.42 conf)
c_page_list_item_def_mail_zip__1 was SC-120[0].Page2[0].List2[0].item2[0].DefMailZip[0] (0.42 conf)
c_page_list_item_def_name__2 was SC-120[0].Page2[0].List2[0].item2[0].Def2Name[0] (0.37 conf)
c_page_list_item_def_phone__2 was SC-120[0].Page2[0].List2[0].item2[0].Def2Phone[0] (0.37 conf)
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c_page_list_item_def_city__2 was SC-120[0].Page2[0].List2[0].item2[0].Def2City[0] (0.37 conf)
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We've done our best to group similar variables togther to avoid overwhelming the user.

Suggested Screen 0:

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The Legal Innovation & Technology Lab's Form Explorer Beta @ Suffolk Law School Last updated 2023-04-02

Defendant's Claim and ORDER to Go to Small Claims Court

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The Legal Innovation & Technology Lab's Form Explorer ^Beta @ Suffolk Law School Last updated 2023-04-02