In California small claims court, if you're the person who started the lawsuit (the plaintiff), you can't appeal the judgment unless you didn't show up at the hearing. You can then request for the judgment to be canceled. However, if you're the person being sued (the defendant) or a plaintiff dealing with a counterclaim, you can appeal to a higher court. Also, if the defendant has insurance and the judgment is over $2,500, the insurance company can appeal, but only if the insurance covers the issue. If a defendant didn’t attend the hearing, they can't appeal directly but can ask to cancel the judgment and appeal if that's denied.

If you were the person suing (plaintiff) and missed your small claims court hearing, you can ask the court to cancel the judgment. You need to submit this request within 30 days from when the judgment was mailed to you. The court will set a date to hear your request, giving at least 10 days notice of the hearing date. If you have a good reason for missing the original hearing, the court might allow your request even if the other person (defendant) isn't there. If your request is approved and everyone involved is there and agrees, the court might deal with the case immediately. Otherwise, the case will be rescheduled, and you'll be informed of the new date.

This law allows either the court or a party to correct a clerical error or overturn a judgment if there's an incorrect legal foundation. The court can initiate this on its own anytime, while a party must do so within 30 days after they receive notice of the judgment. Each party is allowed to make only one such motion.

If you missed your small claims court hearing and there's a judgment against you, you can ask the court to cancel it by filing a motion within 30 days after you get notified of the judgment. You should attend the hearing about your request or explain why you can't. The court might cancel the judgment if you have a good reason. If they do, and both parties are there and agree, they may immediately continue with the case; if not, they'll reschedule. If your request is denied, you can appeal the denial to a higher court within 10 days. If the appeal is successful, the higher court can handle the case right away if everyone is present or send it back to the small claims court.

If you were a defendant in a small claims case and weren’t properly notified (or served) about the hearing, and you didn’t show up, you can ask the court to cancel the decision against you. You need to do this by filling out some paperwork and a statement explaining your situation, and you have 180 days to act from when you found out or should have found out about the judgment. The court might stop the decision from being carried out while they decide whether to cancel it. If you have a good reason, the court could agree to cancel the judgment even if the other side isn’t there. Some rules from a related section also apply to this process.

When someone files a motion to cancel a previous judgment or decision, they need to pay a $20 fee to the court clerk.

If you want to appeal a judgment from a small claims court, you need to file a notice of appeal with the court's clerk. This needs to be done within 30 days after you receive the judgment notification. If you miss this deadline, your appeal won't be considered. Also, asking for a correction of a mistake doesn't extend the deadline for appealing. However, if the judgment gets changed and a new notification is sent, a new 30-day period will start from that notification date.

If you want to appeal a decision, you'll need to pay a $75 fee. Those who aren't making the appeal don't need to pay anything to file documents about the appeal. The fee is split between the county law library fund and the Trial Court Trust Fund.

If you appeal a small claims decision in California, the case goes to a new hearing in superior court with a different judge. This hearing is informal and doesn't allow for things like pretrial investigations or jury trials. The rules from small claims court still apply, but lawyers can now participate. All claims from the original case are reviewed again. The court will notify you of the hearing date, and the Judicial Council can make additional rules about the process.

Once the superior court makes a decision on an appeal, you can't appeal that decision again. The rules for small claims court judgments also apply here, with one exception. If it's necessary for fairness, the court can award you up to $150 each for reasonable attorney fees and other costs like lost earnings or travel expenses related to the appeal.

If a superior court decides that someone appealed a case just to annoy, delay, or pressure the other party, it may require the appellant to pay the other party’s legal costs up to $1,000 and cover any lost earnings or travel expenses, also up to $1,000. This decision would follow a hearing.

If someone appeals a small claims decision and doesn’t show up at the hearing or if the appeal takes over a year to be heard, the superior court can dismiss the appeal. If this happens, the small claims court will act like the appeal never existed and resume control over the case.

This section explains the process for obtaining different types of writs—basically orders from a higher court to a lower one—when dealing with small claims cases in California. If someone wants a writ about an act of the small claims division (except for postjudgment actions), it can be heard by judges from the appellate division, the Court of Appeal, or even the Supreme Court. The fees for these requests are the same as filing a normal appeal, and the Judicial Council will provide the procedural rules. Notably, you can't directly appeal a decision granting or denying these writs, but an appellate court might choose to review them. Additionally, writs related to postjudgment enforcement can be reviewed by several higher courts, including the appellate division.