Once an eviction case is in court, California law gives you the right to request documents, answers, and admissions from the landlord — but you have to ask for them. This edition helps you understand that process, build your own requests, and know what to do when the landlord sends discovery to you.
Discovery is the formal process for exchanging information before trial. Each side can ask the other for facts, documents, and admissions. For a self-represented tenant, it can be the difference between guessing at the landlord's case and actually seeing the records behind it — the notice calculations, the rent ledger, the registration status, the inspection history.
The centerpiece of this edition is the Discovery Request Builder — a tool that helps you assemble your requests around the issues in your case instead of starting from a blank page.
Start from the issues in your case — nonpayment of rent, habitability or retaliation, nuisance or lease violation, registration and compliance, disability and accommodation, post-foreclosure, or advanced defenses — and select from as many as apply.
Browse Requests for Admission, Special Interrogatories (SPROGs), and Requests for Production, organized by case type and defense theme. Select the requests that match your facts.
Plain-language guidance on when a document "speaks for itself," how "YOU" and "YOUR AGENT" are defined, why to keep each request to a single actor, and how many tenants serve discovery in sets over time rather than all at once.
When you're done selecting, generate a numbered, grouped list of your chosen requests — ready to copy into your own documents, fill in with your facts, and print.
Discovery goes both ways. This edition also helps you understand what to do when the landlord serves requests on you.
One-time access to the Know Your Rights: Discovery Edition.
