In legal terms a "Proposed Answer." As the defendant, am I to serve the plaintiff any papers?

Question

When filing my Proposed Answer to an unlawful detainer complaint, and making the required copies, the court only gave me one copy, and instructed me to call the plaintiff, am i to serve this copy to the plaintiff, or does the court notify the plaintiff of the hearing, or I am to tell the plaintiff of the schelduled hearing date and time.?

Answer 1

that is your copy. the plaintiff gets his from the court. you have no contact with the plaintiff unless for depositions, in the presence of a court recorder. if you don't have an attorney, get one. you'll have a better chance of winning.

Answer 2

In California, the defendant is not required to serve the plaintiff, but is required to mail him a copy of the answer filed with the court.

Practically speaking, many defendants would not do this and the plaintiff would have to go to the clerk's office to get a copy of the answer.

Calling the Plaintiff seems odd. That's seems appropriate to notify him that you're going in ex parte for a particular motion, but not that you filed an answer.

You best beet is this: call the legal aid organization in your area, as they generally help defendants with unlawful detainers for free. Even if you don't qualify for actual handling of your case, they'll be able to tell you proper filing/serving procedures.