california-sc100-form-fields

California SC-100 Small Claims Court Form - Field Mapping

Overview

The SC-100 is the official "Plaintiff's Claim and ORDER to Go to Small Claims Court" form used in California. It is a fillable PDF with specific named form fields.

Common PDF Field Names and Their Meanings

The SC-100 form typically has these sections and fields (field names may vary slightly by PDF version but generally follow this pattern):

Header / Court Info

• Court name fields: Usually at top — the Superior Court name, branch, address. Often left for the court to fill or filled based on filing location.
• Fields like SCCourt, court_name, or Text1-style names for court identification.

Plaintiff Information (Item 1)

• Plaintiff name: The person filing the claim (e.g., Plaintiff1Name, Name of Plaintiff 1)
• Plaintiff address / Street: Street address of plaintiff
• Plaintiff City, State, ZIP: City/State/Zip
• Plaintiff phone: Telephone number
• Plaintiff email: Email address (if field exists)
• Multiple plaintiff support (Plaintiff 2, etc.)

Defendant Information (Item 2)

• Defendant name: The person being sued
• Defendant address / Street: Street address
• Defendant City, State, ZIP
• Defendant phone: Phone number

Claim Details (Items 3–8)

• Item 3 - Why filing in this court: Checkboxes for venue reason (where defendant lives, where damage occurred, where contract was signed, etc.)
  • Common checkbox: "Defendant lives in this court's jurisdiction" or similar
• Item 4 - Amount of claim: Dollar amount claimed (e.g., $1,500.00)
• Item 5 - Basis of claim / What happened: Text field explaining the dispute
  • Often includes date fields for when the events occurred
• Item 6 - Have you asked the defendant to pay: Yes/No checkbox, with explanation
• Item 7 - Number of small claims filed in past 12 months: Count field
• Item 8 - Understanding of rules: Checkbox acknowledging court procedures

Filing / Signature Section

• Date filed: Date of filing
• Plaintiff signature: Signature field
• Filed on behalf of: Whether plaintiff is individual, business, etc.

Checkbox Fields

Checkboxes in PDF forms are typically toggled with values like:

• Yes, On, 1, True for checked
• Off, No, 0, False for unchecked

The actual value depends on how the PDF was authored. Use a PDF inspection tool to determine exact values.

Date Format

Per the task instructions, dates should be formatted as xxxx-xx-xx (e.g., 2026-01-19).

Important Notes

• Court-filled fields (like case number, hearing date/time) should be left empty.
• Optional fields not mentioned in the case description should be left empty.
• Inspect the actual PDF field names using a tool like pdftk dump_data_fields or Python's PyPDF2/pikepdf/pdfrw to get exact field names before filling.