§ 680.010.Title of Law

Every statute needs a name, and this is where Title 9 gets one: the Enforcement of Judgments Law, often shortened to EJL by lawyers and courts. That single sentence does more work than it looks like. It tells a reader that everything from here through the end of Title 9 belongs to one integrated scheme, not a loose collection of unrelated statutes.

That matters in practice because so many later EJL sections point back to "this title" rather than repeating themselves. When § 680.110 says the definitions in this chapter govern construction of "this title," or when § 681.010 routes different kinds of judgments to different enforcement chapters within "this title," the short title in § 680.010 is what fixes the boundary those cross-references depend on.

For anyone researching how to collect a California judgment, this section is a signpost more than a rule: it confirms you are in the right body of law before you go looking for the specific procedure you need.