How to File a Request for Dismissal in California: Form CIV-110

To file a request for dismissal in California, complete Judicial Council Form CIV-110, choose whether the dismissal is with or without prejudice, and submit it to the clerk of the Superior Court where your case is pending before trial begins. You then serve a Notice of Entry of Dismissal (Form CIV-120) on the other parties and file that notice with the court. If no cross-complaint has been filed against you and you are not yet at trial, you do not need the court’s permission or the other side’s agreement.¹

The timing rule sits above everything else. Before the actual commencement of trial, a plaintiff has an unconditional right to file a written request for dismissal with the clerk, choosing either with or without prejudice. You can dismiss the entire case, drop specific defendants, or withdraw individual causes of action while leaving the rest of the case alive. Once trial starts, that flexibility disappears. If you are considering voluntary dismissal, do it before the trial date, not on it.

Completing Form CIV-110

CIV-110 is the Judicial Council’s Request for Dismissal, and it is mandatory for all voluntary dismissals in California civil cases.² You can download it from the California Courts website or pick up a copy at the clerk’s office. It is a single page, but every selection on it has consequences.

Fill in the case name, case number, and the Superior Court where the case is filed. Then specify the scope of dismissal. The form gives you three options:³

Entire action, which dismisses all parties and all causes of action.
Specific parties only, which drops named defendants while keeping the case alive against others.
Specific causes of action only, which withdraws particular claims while continuing the rest.

Then mark whether the dismissal is with prejudice, without prejudice, or without prejudice with the court retaining jurisdiction to enforce a settlement. Disclose whether a cross-complaint has been filed, because that affects whether you can dismiss unilaterally at all.

Attorney Consent

If you are represented, the dismissal cannot be entered without your attorney’s written consent. If for some reason your lawyer will not sign, the court must be asked to order the dismissal after giving notice to the attorney.¹ The rule exists to keep parties from dismissing cases out from under their own counsel.

Fee Waiver Lien

If the court previously waived your filing fees, complete the declaration on the back of the form. California law requires waived fees to be repaid to the court when a party recovers $10,000 or more through a settlement, arbitration award, or other recovery, and the clerk can refuse to process your dismissal until that lien is satisfied.⁴ You declare under penalty of perjury either that the lien has been paid or that your recovery was under $10,000.

With Prejudice or Without Prejudice

The box you check here decides whether the claims are gone forever.

A dismissal with prejudice permanently ends your claims. It functions like a final judgment against you on the merits, and you cannot refile the same claims against the same parties on the same facts. Plaintiffs generally choose this when a case has fully resolved, such as after a settlement has been paid in full.

A dismissal without prejudice closes the current case but preserves your right to refile. This is the common choice when something has gone wrong procedurally, such as defective service or the wrong court, or when a temporary resolution needs time to play out. The important limit: the statute of limitations does not pause while your case is pending. The clock keeps running from whenever your cause of action first arose, so a without-prejudice dismissal filed near the end of the limitations period can quietly kill your ability to refile. Count the remaining time on your limitations period carefully before choosing this option.

Filing With the Clerk and Serving CIV-120

Submit the completed CIV-110 to the clerk of the Superior Court where your case is filed, either in person or through the county’s electronic filing system. The clerk file-stamps and endorses the form, and the stamped date is the official date of dismissal, which is when your case terminates on the court’s record.

Filing is not the last step. You must also serve a Notice of Entry of Dismissal on all other parties using Form CIV-120, and then file that notice with the court.⁵ CIV-120 tells everyone that the dismissal has been processed and points them to the CIV-110 for details.⁶ Service can be by mail or electronically, and CIV-120 includes a proof of service section you complete to document who was notified and when.

Don’t skip the CIV-120. Serving the notice of entry starts the 60-day clock for any party who might appeal the dismissal. Without that service, the appeal window stretches to 180 days from the date of entry.⁷

When You Can’t Dismiss on Your Own

Your unilateral right to dismiss disappears if the defendant has filed a cross-complaint seeking affirmative relief against you. In that situation, filing CIV-110 with the clerk is not enough on its own.¹ The same restriction applies when a motion to transfer the case to another court is pending. The defendant has live claims of their own, and the plaintiff cannot pull the case out from under them.

The workaround is a stipulated dismissal. Item 3 on CIV-110 is the consent section, where every party or their attorney signs to confirm agreement.³ If the cross-complainant will not agree, you can still dismiss your own complaint, but the cross-complaint survives and the case continues with you as the defendant on those claims.

Class actions face a related restriction. A certified class action, or one proposed for certification as part of a settlement, cannot be voluntarily dismissed without court approval and notice to class members.

Keeping the Court’s Authority Over a Settlement

When parties settle and want the court to keep the power to enforce the settlement after dismissal, they choose the third option on the form: dismissal without prejudice with the court retaining jurisdiction. This invokes Code of Civil Procedure Section 664.6, which lets the court dismiss the case while keeping authority over the parties until every term of the settlement has been performed.⁸

The practical difference is significant. Without retained jurisdiction, a dismissed case is done, and if the other side stops paying under the settlement, your only option is a new lawsuit for breach of the settlement agreement. With retained jurisdiction, you return to the same judge, file a motion, and ask the court to enter judgment on the original settlement terms. It is faster and cheaper.

Because this option gives the court ongoing power over everyone, everyone must consent. All parties or their attorneys sign the stipulation section of the CIV-110 before filing.³

If Trial Has Already Started

After the actual commencement of trial, the rules flip. Any dismissal requested by the plaintiff is entered with prejudice unless every affected party consents to without prejudice or the court finds good cause to allow one.¹ If the plaintiff simply abandons the case during trial without requesting dismissal, the court dismisses it with prejudice on its own.

California courts have interpreted “actual commencement of trial” to mean the point when the jury is sworn or, in a bench trial, when the first witness is called or evidence is submitted. Motions in limine and jury selection before the jury is sworn generally do not count. Even so, the safe course is to file the request well before the trial date rather than trying to thread the needle on trial-day timing.

Refiling After a Dismissal Without Prejudice

A without-prejudice dismissal preserves your right to refile but does not give you unlimited time. The statute of limitations is generally treated as running uninterrupted from the date your cause of action first arose. Filing and then dismissing the original lawsuit does not reset or pause that clock. If the limitations period has expired by the time you try to refile, the new case will be time-barred no matter what your earlier dismissal said.

This catches plaintiffs off guard more than almost anything else in civil procedure. A case that took two years to litigate before being dismissed without prejudice may have consumed most or all of the limitations period. Before filing a voluntary dismissal, calculate exactly how much time remains on every applicable statute of limitations and confirm you can refile within that window if needed. If you are cutting it close, talk to a lawyer about whether equitable tolling might apply to your facts; courts grant it sparingly and expect you to act quickly after the dismissal.

1
California Legislative Information. California Code of Civil Procedure Section 581
2
California Courts. Request for Dismissal
3
Judicial Council of California. California Form CIV-110 – Request for Dismissal
4
California Legislative Information. California Code GOV 68637
5
Judicial Branch of California. Rule 3.1390 – Service and Filing of Notice of Entry of Dismissal
6
California Courts. Notice of Entry of Dismissal and Proof of Service CIV-120
7
Judicial Branch of California. Rule 8.104 – Time to Appeal
8
California Legislative Information. California Code CCP 664.6