In such action the party complaining is known as the plaintiff, and the adverse party as the defendant.
§ 308.Parties
Title 1. Of the Form of Civil Actions · Enacted 1872 · no amendments on record · Last verified July 28, 2026
In one sentenceSection 308 fixes the vocabulary for every California civil action, naming the party who brings the complaint the plaintiff and the party against whom it is brought the defendant.
Full Text of § 308
Plain-English Summary
Section 308 is short because its job is small: it names the two sides of a civil action. The party who complains, who brings the claim, is the plaintiff. The party on the other side, the one answering the complaint, is the defendant.
Those labels carry through every rule in this code that follows. When a later section speaks of what a "plaintiff" must file or what a "defendant" may do in response, it is building on the naming convention this section sets.
The terms are not limited to one person each. A civil action can have several plaintiffs or several defendants (see § 378 and § 379), and other titles in this code define more specific roles, such as a real party in interest under § 367, that build on top of the basic plaintiff-defendant labels Section 308 supplies.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is the plaintiff in a California civil action?
Under Section 308, the plaintiff is the party complaining, the one bringing the civil action.
Who is the defendant?
Section 308 names the adverse party, the one against whom the action is brought, the defendant.
Can a case have more than one plaintiff or defendant?
Amendment History
Enacted 1872.
Source & verification. Section text is reproduced verbatim from
the Deering's California Codes Annotated / vLex. Enacted by the California Legislature.
Last verified July 28, 2026.
· Official source
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