§ 1733.Application For Entry of Judgment

Section 1733 is the entry point into the recognition process: it tells an applicant where to file. The application has to go into a superior court, and, apart from the special county rule Section 1733.1 provides for certain family-related orders, the proper county is wherever a respondent lives or owns property, or, if no respondent lives in California, any county in the state. That flexibility keeps the process from stalling just because a respondent's connection to California is thin.

The section also sorts smaller judgments into a faster track. When the tribal court money judgment amounts to thirty-five thousand dollars or less, the resulting case is treated as a limited civil case, which brings the streamlined procedures and lower costs that limited civil cases carry throughout California courts, rather than the fuller procedures that apply to unlimited civil cases.