California Form APP-002: Notice of Appeal Filing, Fees, and Deadlines

California Form APP-002 is the Judicial Council form you file with the superior court clerk to begin an appeal of a judgment or appealable order in an unlimited civil case, meaning a matter generally involving more than $35,000 or one from family, juvenile, or probate court.¹ The form goes to the same trial court that issued the ruling, not to the Court of Appeal.² Filing it costs $775 in Court of Appeal fees plus a $100 superior court deposit, and the deadline is jurisdictional. Miss it by a day and no court can save the appeal.³

Deadline to File

The filing deadline is the single most important thing to get right. Under Rule 8.104, you must file APP-002 on or before the earliest of three dates:³

60 days after the superior court clerk serves you with a document titled “Notice of Entry” of judgment or a file-endorsed copy of the judgment.
60 days after any party serves you with a “Notice of Entry” of judgment or a file-endorsed copy, accompanied by proof of service.
180 days after entry of the judgment itself, regardless of whether anyone served a notice of entry.

Whichever date arrives first controls. The 180-day backstop exists for situations where nobody bothers to serve a formal notice of entry, but once someone does, the 60-day clock starts and the 180-day date becomes irrelevant if it falls later.

Rule 8.104(b) states flatly that no court may extend the time to file a notice of appeal. A late filing means mandatory dismissal, with no good-cause exception and no motion that can fix it.³ Calendar the deadline the moment you learn of the ruling.

One narrow safety net exists. Certain pending post-judgment motions, such as a motion for new trial or a motion to vacate the judgment, can extend the appeal deadline under Rule 8.108.⁴ Rule 8.108 only extends deadlines; it never shortens them. If the normal Rule 8.104 deadline is already longer, it still controls.

Filing too early is less dangerous than filing too late. Under Rule 8.104(e), a notice filed after a judgment is rendered but before it is formally entered is treated as filed immediately after entry. A notice filed after the court announces its intended ruling but before it renders judgment may be treated as timely, at the Court of Appeal’s discretion. “May” is the operative word, so the safer practice is to wait until the judgment is at least rendered.

Which Rulings You Can Appeal on This Form

Not every trial court ruling is appealable. Filing APP-002 to challenge a non-appealable order wastes your filing fees and can burn the clock on a writ petition that might have been the correct remedy. Code of Civil Procedure section 904.1 lists what you can appeal in an unlimited civil case:⁵

Final judgments after a jury trial, court trial, default, summary judgment, or dismissal (including dismissal after a sustained demurrer).
Post-judgment orders such as attorney fee awards or orders denying a motion to vacate.
Orders granting, dissolving, or refusing to grant or dissolve an injunction.
Orders granting a new trial or denying a motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict.
Interlocutory judgments or orders directing payment of monetary sanctions exceeding $5,000.
Orders granting or denying a special motion to strike under Code of Civil Procedure sections 425.16 and 425.19.
Orders on attachment, receivers, certain interlocutory judgments in partition and redemption actions, and orders made appealable by the Probate Code or Family Code.

Most interlocutory orders are not independently appealable. Discovery orders, evidentiary rulings, and orders overruling demurrers generally cannot be challenged until after a final judgment, at which point you can raise them as errors on appeal from that judgment. When immediate review of a non-appealable order is essential, a writ petition to the Court of Appeal is usually the correct path, though the court has discretion to deny it.

Filling Out the Form

Download the current version of APP-002 from the California Courts website.² It is two pages. A header block and three numbered items make up the substance.

Header Block

Fill in the attorney or self-represented party’s name, address, phone number, and State Bar number (if an attorney) in the upper left. In the upper right, enter the full name of the superior court and the trial court case number. Check either “Notice of Appeal” or “Cross-Appeal” at the top, unless you are simultaneously filing both on the same form.

Item 1: The Notice Itself

Item 1(a) asks for the name of the person appealing. Enter your full legal name if you are the appellant. Where an attorney is appealing a sanctions order on their own behalf, the attorney’s name goes here instead.

Item 1(b) asks for the date the judgment or order was entered. This is the date the judgment was filed with the court clerk or, for minute orders that directed preparation of a written order, the date the signed order was filed. Getting this date wrong can create confusion about whether the appeal is timely, so pull it directly from the clerk’s file-endorsed copy.

Item 1(c) is the most important substantive checkbox. It identifies what kind of judgment or order you are appealing. Options include:²

Judgment after jury trial
Judgment after court trial
Default judgment
Judgment after an order granting summary judgment
Judgment of dismissal under Code of Civil Procedure sections 581d, 583.250, 583.360, or 583.430
Judgment of dismissal after an order sustaining a demurrer
Post-judgment order under CCP 904.1(a)(2)
An order under CCP 904.1(a)(3)–(13)
“Other,” with a blank to describe the order and cite the authorizing statute

Check every box that applies. If you are appealing both a final judgment and a post-judgment attorney fee order, check both. Item 1(d) is a separate line for sanctions appeals filed by an attorney rather than a party.

Item 2: Cross-Appeals Only

If the other side already appealed and you want to challenge a different part of the same judgment, fill in item 2 with the date the original notice of appeal was filed, the date the superior court clerk mailed notice of the original appeal, and the Court of Appeal case number if you have it. Leave item 2 blank if you are filing the initial appeal.

Item 3 and Signature

Item 3 lets you optionally attach a copy of the judgment or order. It is not required but can help the court process the filing. Sign and date the form. The signature must come from either the party or the party’s attorney of record.

Filing Fees and Fee Waivers

Two separate payments accompany the notice:⁶

A $775 Court of Appeal filing fee, by check or money order payable to “Clerk/Executive Officer, Court of Appeal.” This fee is set by Government Code sections 68926 and 68926.1(b).
A $100 superior court deposit, payable to “Clerk of the Superior Court.” This covers initial costs of preparing the record on appeal.

If you cannot afford these fees, file Form FW-001 (Request to Waive Court Fees) along with your notice of appeal.⁷ You qualify if you receive certain public benefits, your income falls below the low-income threshold, or your income is insufficient to cover basic household needs and court costs. Submit the waiver application instead of the fees. If the court grants it, both fees are waived; if the court denies it, you will have a short window to pay. Filing the notice without either the fees or a pending waiver application will result in the clerk rejecting the filing.⁶

Where and How to File, and Who to Serve

File APP-002 with the clerk of the superior court where the case was tried, not with the Court of Appeal.² You can submit it in person at the courthouse filing window, by mail, or through the court’s electronic filing system if one is available. Check your county’s superior court website for e-filing options, since not all counties have implemented them for all case types.

Once the case reaches the Court of Appeal, the electronic filing rules shift. Under Rule 8.71, all represented parties must file documents electronically in the reviewing court.⁸ Self-represented parties are exempt and may continue filing on paper, though they can opt into e-filing voluntarily.

Filing with the court is only half the requirement. You must also serve a copy of the completed APP-002 on every other party, meaning their attorney of record or the party directly if self-represented.⁶ The person who delivers the copy must be at least 18 years old and not a party to the case.⁹

Acceptable methods include personal delivery, mail, and electronic service if the parties have agreed to it or the court requires it. After service is complete, the server fills out a proof of service form. APP-009 works for mail and personal delivery, and APP-009E works for electronic service.¹⁰ File the completed proof of service with the superior court along with the original APP-002 or promptly after. Without it on file, the court may refuse to move the appeal forward.

What Happens After You File

Once the superior court clerk accepts the notice and fees, Rule 8.100(e) directs the clerk to send notification of the filing to every party’s attorney (or to unrepresented parties directly) and to forward the notice and filing fee to the appropriate district of the Court of Appeal.⁶ You will receive a confirmation that your appeal has been filed and assigned a Court of Appeal case number. Jurisdiction over the appealed issues then begins shifting from the trial court to the appellate court.

Designating the Record

Shortly after filing your notice, you need to tell the superior court what materials the Court of Appeal should review. You do this by filing Form APP-003 (Appellant’s Notice Designating Record on Appeal).¹¹ The record has two main components: a clerk’s transcript (or, under Rule 8.124, an appendix) containing the written documents from the case file, and a reporter’s transcript containing the verbatim record of oral proceedings. For the reporter’s transcript, Rule 8.130 requires you to deposit the estimated cost of transcription with the court reporter or show a fee waiver.

If no court reporter was present and you need a record of oral proceedings, you may use an agreed statement under Rule 8.134 or a settled statement under Rule 8.137. For an agreed statement, both sides have 40 days from the filing of the notice of appeal to file the statement or a notice that agreement could not be reached.¹¹

After the respondent has 10 days to add their own designated items, the clerk and court reporter begin assembling the record. This is the most time-consuming phase. Preparation of a reporter’s transcript alone can take weeks or months depending on the length of trial and the reporter’s workload.

Stopping Enforcement During the Appeal

Filing the notice does not automatically stop the winning party from enforcing the judgment. Under Code of Civil Procedure section 916(a), the appeal stays proceedings on matters “embraced” in the appealed judgment, but enforcement of a money judgment is a major exception. If the trial court ordered you to pay damages, the other side can begin collection efforts unless you take additional steps.

To stop enforcement of a money judgment during the appeal, you typically need to post an undertaking (appeal bond) under Code of Civil Procedure section 917.1. The required amount is one and one-half times the judgment if the bond comes from an admitted surety insurer, or double the judgment amount from any other source. On a $500,000 judgment, that means a bond of $750,000 through a surety company or $1,000,000 from another source. The bond guarantees that if the judgment is affirmed or the appeal is dismissed, you will pay the judgment plus any interest accrued during the appeal. The practical cost is the premium the surety company charges, a percentage of the bond amount.

The rules differ for injunctions. A mandatory injunction (one ordering you to do something) is generally stayed automatically upon filing the appeal. A prohibitory injunction (one ordering you not to do something) is not automatically stayed and remains in effect during the appeal unless you obtain a separate stay order from the trial court or the Court of Appeal. Specialized orders involving topics like hazardous substances or corporate inspections have their own stay rules under Code of Civil Procedure sections 917.1 through 917.9.

Mistakes That Kill Appeals

The most frequent and most fatal error is filing late. Because the deadline is jurisdictional, even one day past the earliest applicable date means mandatory dismissal. A common cause is miscalculating the start date. The 60-day clock runs from service of the notice of entry, not from the date the judge announced the ruling from the bench.

Another common problem is appealing from a non-appealable order. If you check the wrong box on item 1(c) or appeal a ruling that is not listed in CCP 904.1, the Court of Appeal will dismiss the appeal for lack of jurisdiction.⁵ When in doubt about whether an order is appealable, review section 904.1 carefully before filing.

Failing to serve the other side or to file a proof of service can stall the appeal before it even gets to briefing. The same goes for forgetting the $100 superior court deposit. Many filers remember the $775 Court of Appeal fee and overlook the separate check to the superior court.¹² Finally, neglecting to designate the record on APP-003 promptly after filing the notice can produce an incomplete record and missed briefing deadlines.

1
California Courts. Civil Cases in California
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Judicial Council of California. APP-002 Notice of Appeal/Cross-Appeal — Unlimited Civil Case
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Judicial Branch of California. California Rules of Court 2026 – Rule 8.104 Time to Appeal
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Judicial Branch of California. California Rules of Court 2026 Rule 8.108 – Extending the Time to Appeal
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California Legislative Information. California Code of Civil Procedure CCP 904.1
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Judicial Branch of California. California Rules of Court 2026 – Rule 8.100 Filing the Appeal
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California Courts | Self Help Guide. Request to Waive Court Fees
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Judicial Branch of California. Rule 8.71 Electronic Filing
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California Courts. Serving Court Papers
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California Courts | Self Help Guide. Proof of Service (Court of Appeal) APP-009
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Judicial Council of California. APP-003 Appellants Notice Designating Record on Appeal — Unlimited Civil Case
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California Courts. Information on Appeal Procedures for Unlimited Civil Cases