Cal. Codes » Civil Code / DIVISION 3. OBLIGATIONS / PART 4. OBLIGATIONS ARISING FROM PARTICULAR TRANSACTIONS / TITLE 1.6C. FAIR DEBT COLLECTION PRACTICES / ARTICLE 2. Debt Collector Responsibilities
California Codes

Cal. Civil Code § 1788.15 (2026)

✓ current as of May 2026
Find cases: SyfertCases citing this section CA-LEGleginfo.legislature.ca.gov JustiaCode on Justia CornellLII Search CasesGoogle Scholar

(a)No debt collector shall collect or attempt to collect a covered debt by means of judicial proceedings when the debt collector knows that service of process, where essential to jurisdiction over the debtor or their property, has not been legally effected.

(b)No debt collector shall collect or attempt to collect a covered debt, other than one reduced to judgment, by means of judicial proceedings in a county other than the county in which the debtor has incurred the covered debt or the county in which the debtor resides at the time those proceedings are instituted, or resided at the time the debt was incurred.

(c)Notwithstanding subdivision (b), when the obligation of the debtor arises from a guaranty by the debtor of a covered commercial debt, a debt collector may collect or attempt to collect covered commercial debt by means of a judicial proceeding in the county in which the nonnatural person for whose purpose the commercial debt was incurred is located.

(d)This section shall apply to all delinquent covered commercial debt sold or assigned on or after July 1, 2025.

Notes of Decisions
Cited in 5 cases (1 in the last 5 years), 1999–2025 · leading case: Polk v. Legal Recovery Law Offices, 291 F.R.D. 485 (S.D. Cal. 2013).
Sort: Relevance Newest Treatment
Polk v. Legal Recovery Law Offices, 291 F.R.D. 485 (S.D. Cal. 2013). “” Cal. Civ.Code § 1788.15(a) (West 2009). Furthermore, Section 1788.”
Yu v. Signet Bank/Virginia, 99 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 1199 (Cal. Ct. App. 1999). “” (Civ. Code, § 1788.15.) Appellants contend that Signet violated these provisions of the Robbins-Rosenthal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (Civ.”
Resurgence Fin., LLC v. Chambers, 173 Cal. App. Supp. 4th 1 (Cal. App. Dep’t Super. Ct. 2009). “” (Civ. Code, § 1788.15, subd. (b).) The credit card agreement included a Delaware choice-of-law clause.”
Weintraub v. Law Off. of Patenaude & Felix, 299 F.R.D. 661 (S.D. Cal. 2014). “” Cal. Civ.Code § 1788.15(a). Furthermore, Section 1788.”
Lazzaro v. Accelerated Inventory Mgmt., LLC (N.D. Cal. 2025). “20 • Count 4: That Defendants violated California Civil Code section 1788.15(a) by “filing and serving a premature lawsuit without providing federally required 21 notice.”
— Cal. Civil Code § 1788.15(a) — 3 cases
Polk v. Legal Recovery Law Offices, 291 F.R.D. 485 (S.D. Cal. 2013). “” Cal. Civ.Code § 1788.15(a) (West 2009). Furthermore, Section 1788.”
Weintraub v. Law Off. of Patenaude & Felix, 299 F.R.D. 661 (S.D. Cal. 2014). “” Cal. Civ.Code § 1788.15(a). Furthermore, Section 1788.”
Lazzaro v. Accelerated Inventory Mgmt., LLC (N.D. Cal. 2025). “20 • Count 4: That Defendants violated California Civil Code section 1788.15(a) by “filing and serving a premature lawsuit without providing federally required 21 notice.”
Annotations are extracted automatically from the opinions in the Syfert caselaw corpus and ranked by authority, recency, and treatment. Dots show Syfertize treatment of the citing case itself.