§ 307.One Form of Civil Action

Section 307 opens Part 2 of the Code of Civil Procedure with a single, sweeping statement: California has one form of civil action. A plaintiff does not have to choose between a historic action at law and a suit in equity, or use different pleadings, filing fees, or procedures depending on the kind of relief sought.

Before code reform, many states split civil litigation into separate legal and equitable tracks, each with its own rules and sometimes its own courts. Section 307 folds both into one civil action, so a claim for money damages and a claim for an injunction can proceed side by side under the same set of procedural rules found throughout this code.

Because Section 307 sits at the start of Part 2, it frames everything that follows: how parties are named (§ 308), how actions are commenced, how they are pleaded, and how they are tried. Nothing in the chapters after it depends on sorting a case into a legal or an equitable category first.