Doe defendants in a California complaint

Almost every California complaint names defendants called Doe. The caption of the personal injury complaint form has a printed line reading "DOES 1 TO" with a blank after it. This page explains what that is for. It is general information, not legal advice.

The rule behind it

Where a plaintiff is ignorant of the name of a defendant, the law says they must state that fact in the complaint, and the defendant may then be designated by any name. When the true name is discovered, the pleading is amended accordingly. That is the whole mechanism, and it is old — the section has stood in substantially its present form since the 1950s.

Its practical value is that a case can be filed on the deadline without knowing the full cast. In an injury case that is common: the driver is known and the employer is not, the shop is known and the maintenance contractor is not, the landlord is known and the management company is not.

What items 6 and 7 record

Item 6 — unknown names

Records that the true names of defendants sued as Does are unknown to the plaintiff, with a space for the Doe numbers. It has a further line for Does who were the agents or employees of other defendants and acted within the scope of that relationship — the allegation that reaches an employer through an employee.

Item 7 — unknown capacities

Records Does who are "persons whose capacities are unknown to plaintiff", again with a space for the numbers. The distinction from item 6 is real: here the person may be identifiable, but the basis on which they might be liable is not yet known.

The attachment forms carry the same idea. Each block of defendants on the motor vehicle and premises liability attachments has its own "Does ___ to ___" range, so the pleading can record which unknown parties are alleged to have driven, owned, entrusted, or managed. The cause of action attachments.

The notice that has to be on the summons

This is the part that protects a person served as a Doe, and it is worth knowing about. No default judgment may be entered against a fictitiously named defendant unless the copy of the summons or other process served on them bore on its face a notice stating in substance: "To the person served: You are hereby served in the within action (or proceedings) as (or on behalf of) the person sued under the fictitious name of", followed by the designation.

So being served with a complaint that happens to mention Does is not the same as being sued as one. The paperwork has to say so on its face.

What happens when a name is found

The plaintiff amends to substitute the real name for the Doe designation. The reason this matters, and the reason lawyers care about getting the Doe allegations right at the start, is timing: whether an amendment substituting a newly discovered defendant is treated as relating back to the original filing can decide whether the claim against that defendant is in time at all.

Deadlines for California injury claims · hit-and-run claims · who is liable in a truck case.

Common questions

I was served with a complaint naming "DOES 1 TO 50". Am I one of them?

Only if you were served as one. The law requires the summons served on a Doe defendant to carry a notice on its face saying, in substance, that you are served in the action as the person sued under the fictitious name, and naming which one. Without that notice, no default judgment can be entered against you as a Doe.

Why do complaints always list Does even when everyone is known?

Because at filing nobody knows everything. A vehicle may turn out to be owned by a company, a driver may turn out to have been working, a property may turn out to be managed by someone else. The Doe allegations preserve the ability to add those parties later.

What is the difference between item 6 and item 7?

Item 6 covers defendants whose true names are unknown. Item 7 covers defendants whose capacities are unknown — the person is identified, but the basis on which they may be responsible is not yet clear.

Sources: Code Civ. Proc., § 474 (suing a defendant whose name is unknown; the notice that must appear on the summons before a default may be entered; amended Stats. 1955, ch. 886). Items 6 and 7 and the caption line read from PLD-PI-001, revised January 1, 2024, retrieved 1 September 2026.