IMPORTANT: California Civil form CIV-100 - Request for Entry of Default, has been revised and now includes a mandatory Declaration of Non-Military status. No court in California can enter a default judgment against any defendant in a civil action unless Section 8 of form CIV-100 is completed.
Why is this relevant to commercial property owners? What does this mean to you and how does it impact your cases?
HISTORY:
The Soldier’s and Sailors’ Civil Relief Act ("SSCRA") was enacted back in 1940 during WWII to protect soldiers and the families of soldiers who were serving overseas during the war. The government knew these men were away from home and had no way of protecting themselves and their families in a civil lawsuit. The act was updated in 2003 and is now called the Service Members Civil Relief Act ("SCRA") This act protects all active service members including those in the reserves and National Guard who have been called to active duty.
SCRA protections are numerous and include but are not limited to: (a) protection from enforcement of certain contracts, leases, loans, and installment contracts; (b) protection from termination of insurance policies; and (cc) provide that a service member may unilaterally terminate a lease if he/she will be deployed outside of the US or deployed for 180 days. SCRA also prohibits any plaintiff from entering a default judgment against a service person in any civil action.
In the past, we processed civil cases and the responsibility for asserting rights under SCRA fell on the service member. In the rare situation where a service member advised us of his/her active status and rights under SCRA, we stopped litigation and worked through the details.
The new declaration required in CIV-100 by the California Civil Court system puts the responsibility for determining whether a person is active military or not on YOU!
SCRA IS NOT A FREE PASS!
There is a great deal of misunderstanding about this law. The protections offered are not carte blanche and the amount of protection given depends on the specific situation. The service member must be prepared to show that military service has had a material effect on the matter involved. SCRA may give a service member (and sometimes family members) partial protection, full protection or no protection at all.
HOW DOES THIS IMPACT YOU?
The new version of form CIV-100 requires that we run a search under a specific SCRA website to ascertain whether or not each defendant is currently serving in active duty. Unless you have personal knowledge and have been advised by the defendant that he/she is not in the military or has been discharged, these searches must be done. The process is simple but requires that we provide either (a) a social security number; or (b) a date of birth for each individual defendant. This obviously pertains to individual defendants only. Click
HERE to view the website.
We will be storing this information via a new and more secure site which will require each client/user to set up an account with a login and password. We apologize for the inconvenience but this new process will require us to store thousands of pieces of sensitive information and we must protect such information.
Once we run the required searches, we will sign the declaration required in Section 8 of CIV-100 and move lawsuits along.
PLEASE REMEMBER: We cannot sign off on your behalf unless we receive the required information and are able to run the required searches.
Please let us know if you have any questions.
