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Cal. Rules of Court, rule 5.43 · Article 2. Special Procedures

Fee waiver denials; voided actions; dismissal

Verbatim from the official edition

Text — As posted by the Judicial Council of California (read October 22, 2026)

(a) Voided paperwork

The clerk of the court must void the papers that were filed with a petitioner's or respondent's fee waiver application if 10 days pass after notice of the fee waiver denial and petitioner or respondent has not:

(1) Paid the fees owed;

(2) Submitted a new Request to Waive Court Fees (form FW-001) if the fee waiver was denied because the first form was incomplete; or

(3) Requested a hearing using Request for Hearing About Court Fee Waiver Order (Superior Court) (form FW-006).

(b) Effect of voided petition or complaint; dismissal or continuation of case

(1) No response or notice of appearance filed

If a petition or complaint is voided under (a) and a response to the petition or complaint has not been filed, or respondent has not appeared in the action, the court may dismiss the case without prejudice. If the court dismisses the case, the clerk of the court must notify the parties.

(2) Response or notice of appearance filed; case continuation or dismissal

If a petition or complaint is voided and a response has been filed with the court, or respondent has appeared in the action, the court must:

(A) Review the response, or documents constituting respondent's appearance, to determine whether or how the case will proceed based on the relief requested;

(B) Notify the parties of the court's determination; and

(C) Refund filing fees paid by the respondent if the court dismisses the case.

Notes and commentary — not rule text

History

Rule 5.43 adopted effective January 1, 2013.

Source of truth

Edition
As posted by the Judicial Council of California (read October 22, 2026)
Official file
https://courts.ca.gov/cms/rules/index/five/rule5_43
Text hash
sha256 bf7c0a1bb4da50a45ac949486a7e0398832a1976a9f05e667c743f421ab807b8
Composed by
compose_crc.py 2026-10-22: the Judicial Council's rule pages read paragraph by paragraph; verify_crc.py's second reading of the Council's per-title PDFs finds every paragraph

Procedural information only. Not legal advice and not a substitute for the advice of an attorney. Confirm the current text with the official publisher before relying on it.