How to File a Stipulation to Set Aside Default in California

A stipulation to set aside default in California is a written agreement, signed by both the plaintiff and the defendant, asking the court to vacate a default the clerk has already entered so the case can move forward on the merits. To file one, you draft the agreement on pleading paper, attach the defendant’s proposed responsive pleading, prepare a separate proposed order for the judge to sign, and submit the package with the $435 first appearance fee. Because the plaintiff has agreed, no hearing is required and the judge almost always signs.

Know Which Order You’re Asking the Court to Vacate

California treats the clerk’s entry of default and a default judgment as two separate events, and your stipulation has to name the right one. A defendant has 30 days after service of the summons to respond.¹ If that window closes, the plaintiff can ask the clerk to enter default, which locks the defendant out of the case. The plaintiff then generally has 45 days to obtain the default judgment itself.² For fixed-sum contract cases the clerk can enter the judgment; other cases require a prove-up hearing before a judge.³

If only the entry of default exists, the stipulation vacates that. If a default judgment has also been entered, the stipulation must address both. Moving before judgment is easier: the plaintiff has less invested, and the court has less to review.

Why a Stipulation Beats a Motion

Without the plaintiff’s agreement, the defendant’s route back into the case is a motion for relief under Code of Civil Procedure section 473(b). That motion requires proving mistake, inadvertence, surprise, or excusable neglect, supported by declarations, followed by written opposition from the plaintiff and a hearing where the judge decides whether the excuse holds up.⁴ That process runs weeks.

A stipulation skips all of it. Because the plaintiff consents, the defendant doesn’t have to justify anything. The judge reviews the signed agreement, confirms the proposed order matches, and signs, usually without a hearing. California policy favors resolution on the merits, so agreed-to relief aligns with what courts want. You also avoid the $60 motion filing fee that a section 473(b) motion carries.⁵

Drafting the Stipulation

There’s no Judicial Council form for this. You’ll draft the document on pleading paper formatted under California Rules of Court, rule 2.100. The California Courts self-help site offers a downloadable pleading paper template in Word.⁶ The top of the first page carries the caption: party contact information starting on line 1, court name and location on line 8, and the case caption with the case number starting on line 11.

The body needs to cover four things:

What is being set aside. Identify the clerk’s entry of default by date. If a default judgment has also been entered, name that too.
What the defendant will file. Specify the responsive pleading, whether that’s an Answer, Demurrer, or Cross-Complaint, and set a deadline. Filed stipulations commonly give the defendant 10 to 30 days.⁷
The proposed responsive pleading. Section 473(b) requires any application for relief from default to include a copy of the proposed pleading, so attach the completed responsive pleading as an exhibit.⁴
Costs and fees. Most stipulations state each side bears its own costs. If the plaintiff wants reimbursement for anything specific, put it in writing.

Both parties, or their attorneys of record, sign and date the stipulation.⁸ A self-represented party still signs personally even if the other side is represented by counsel. Electronic signatures may be acceptable; check your court’s local rules.

The Proposed Order

Prepare a separate proposed order as a short, standalone document on pleading paper with the same caption. It should recite that the court has reviewed the parties’ stipulation, that good cause appears, that the clerk’s entry of default (and any default judgment) is set aside, and that the clerk is directed to accept the defendant’s responsive pleading for filing.

Keep it short. Judges want to read the operative language, confirm it tracks the stipulation, and sign. Put any conditions the parties agreed to, like the filing deadline for the responsive pleading, into the order so they become court-enforceable and not just contract terms between the two sides.

Filing the Package and Paying the Fee

The submission package is three items: the original signed stipulation with the proposed responsive pleading attached as an exhibit, the proposed order, and copies for each party. Many California superior courts require e-filing for civil cases, and some will reject paper filings where e-filing is mandatory. Check the local rules before you go.

Because the defendant is filing a first paper in the case, they must pay the first appearance fee: $435 for an unlimited civil case (over $35,000).⁹ The fee is slightly higher in Riverside, San Bernardino, and San Francisco counties because of local courthouse construction surcharges. Limited civil cases ($35,000 or less) carry a lower fee. A defendant who can’t afford the fee applies for a waiver on Judicial Council form FW-001; eligibility includes people receiving public benefits like Medi-Cal, CalFresh, or SSI, along with anyone whose income won’t cover basic household expenses plus court costs.¹⁰

How Soon You Need to File

The statute doesn’t set a hard deadline for stipulations the way it does for motions, but don’t read that as license to wait. Section 473(b) gives a defendant six months from entry of default or default judgment to seek relief by motion.⁴ A judge asked to sign a stipulation filed well past that window may question the delay and decline. File as soon as both sides have signed.

Separate deadlines apply if the defendant never received actual notice of the lawsuit. Under CCP 473.5, relief must be sought within a reasonable time, and no later than two years after entry of a default judgment or 180 days after written notice that the default was entered, whichever is earlier.¹¹ Those timeframes also mark the outer edge of what a court will consider reasonable for a stipulation on the same facts.

Void judgments are the exception. Under CCP 473(d), a court can set aside a void judgment at any time, whether on its own or on motion.¹² A judgment is void when the court lacked jurisdiction, typically because service of process was fundamentally defective. In that situation the six-month clock doesn’t run, though a stipulation may still be the fastest path.

After the Judge Signs

Once the order is signed, the entry of default is vacated and the case returns to the pleading stage. The clerk files the responsive pleading that was attached to the stipulation. Confirm this actually happens: clerical oversights occur, and finding out weeks later that your Answer was never entered defeats the point of the whole exercise.

The defendant then serves the filed responsive pleading on the plaintiff, and the case proceeds normally through discovery, motions, and trial. If the defendant misses the responsive pleading deadline set in the stipulation, or otherwise stops participating, the plaintiff can seek a second default. Courts are far less sympathetic the second time.

If the Plaintiff Refuses to Sign

A stipulation depends entirely on the plaintiff’s cooperation. Many will agree, preferring to litigate the merits than risk losing a contested motion. Some won’t, especially after obtaining a default judgment for a specific dollar amount. Several fallbacks exist.

The main one is a discretionary motion under CCP 473(b). You’ll need to show mistake, inadvertence, surprise, or excusable neglect, file within six months, and include the proposed responsive pleading.⁴

If the default happened because of attorney error, section 473(b) has a mandatory relief provision: when the attorney submits a sworn affidavit accepting responsibility, the court must vacate the default. The attorney may be ordered to pay the plaintiff’s reasonable fees and costs, but the client gets back into the case. The same six-month deadline applies.⁴

If you never learned of the lawsuit until after default was entered, CCP 473.5 lets you seek relief for lack of actual notice, supported by an affidavit that your ignorance wasn’t the product of deliberate avoidance or inexcusable neglect, and filed within the deadlines above.¹¹ And if service was so defective that the court never had jurisdiction, the judgment may be void and subject to being set aside at any time under CCP 473(d).¹²

1
California Legislative Information. California Code of Civil Procedure CCP 412.20 – Contents of Summons
2
Judicial Branch of California. California Rules of Court 2026 – Rule 3.110
3
California Legislative Information. California Code of Civil Procedure 585 – Default Judgment
4
California Legislative Information. California Code of Civil Procedure 473 – Relief from Judgment or Order
5
California Legislative Information. California Government Code 70617 – Motion Filing Fees
6
California Courts. Find and Fill Out Court Forms
7
GovInfo. Stipulation to Set Aside Default and Order – Case No. 2:14-CV-02685
8
GovInfo. Stipulation to Set Aside Default and Order – Case No. 2:09-cv-01412
9
Judicial Branch of California. Statewide Civil Fee Schedule Effective January 1, 2026
10
Judicial Branch of California. Information Sheet on Waiver of Superior Court Fees and Costs – FW-001-INFO
11
California Legislative Information. California Code of Civil Procedure 473.5 – Lack of Actual Notice
12
California Legislative Information. California Code of Civil Procedure 473(d) – Void Judgments