How to Sue for Spam Texts and Calls in California Small Claims Court
How California small claims works for spam calls and texts: build the evidence, find the real company, send a demand, file the SC-100 and get ready for the hearing. General information, not legal advice.
Short answer: yes, you can bring a claim for spam calls and texts in California small claims court without a lawyer. The Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) allows up to $500 per violation, and up to $1,500 if a court finds the company acted willfully or knowingly. The hard parts are proving the contacts and finding the real company behind them. Here is the process step by step.
Before you file: do you have a claim?
Most spam claims rest on one of these federal rules:
- Do Not Call Registry (47 U.S.C. § 227(c), 47 C.F.R. § 64.1200(c)(2)). Your number was on the National Do Not Call Registry for at least 31 days, and the same company called or texted you to sell something two or more times within 12 months.
- Ignoring your STOP (47 C.F.R. § 64.1200(d)). Companies must keep their own do-not-call list and honor your request. Courts often focus on contacts after you told them to stop. See what the TCPA says about texts after STOP.
- Prerecorded or robot voice calls (47 U.S.C. § 227(b)). No two-call minimum. The rule covers each call.
- Calls before 8 AM or after 9 PM your local time (47 C.F.R. § 64.1200(c)(1)).
What usually kills a claim: you had done business with the company, you filled out a form that gave consent, or you only got one contact. Be honest with yourself about any prior application or opt-in. A company that can produce a consent form you signed may defeat the claim.
Step 1: Build a contact log
Write down every call and text: the number it came from, the date, the time, what the message said, and whether it came after you said stop. Screenshots should show the sender number, the timestamp and the message in one frame. Pull your carrier’s call and text logs too, because they show contacts your phone blocked and texts you deleted. Our phone data guide walks through the exports for iPhone and Android.
Save your Do Not Call Registry confirmation. You can get one at donotcall.gov under “Verify a registration.” It shows the date your number was added.
Step 2: Find the real company
You can’t sue “Chase from Swift Capital.” You need the legal name of a business and an address where it can be served. Spam operations rotate phone numbers and use first names only, so this is usually the longest step.
- Reply once asking for the company’s full legal name, website and email. Many texters answer.
- Look up the company in the state business registry: bizfileonline.sos.ca.gov for California, and the Secretary of State site for the state the company claims to be in (New York, Florida and Delaware are common).
- Write down the exact registered name, entity number and registered agent. The agent’s address is where you serve papers.
- Check the company’s own website, especially the Terms and Privacy pages. Operators often name their legal entity there.
Step 3: Send a written demand first
California small claims courts expect you to ask the other side to pay before you sue, and the SC-100 form asks whether you did. Send a letter by email and by mail with tracking that:
- lists every contact with date, time and number,
- states that your number is on the Registry and that you did not consent,
- revokes any consent they claim and tells them to stop contacting you,
- tells them to preserve their records,
- shows the amounts the law sets and asks for payment by a specific date.
Some companies settle at this stage, sometimes within hours of getting the letter. Many never answer. Keep every reply. Anything they send after your letter is more evidence.
Step 4: File the SC-100
- Form: Plaintiff’s Claim and ORDER to Go to Small Claims Court (SC-100). Many courts accept it online.
- Limit: an individual can sue for up to $12,500. You can’t split one claim to get around it, and anything above the limit is given up.
- Big-claim cap: you can file no more than two claims over $2,500 anywhere in California in a calendar year.
- Fee: $30 to $100 depending on the amount and how many claims you’ve filed. If you can’t afford it, ask for a fee waiver (form FW-001).
- Where: the form asks why you chose that court. Filing where you received the calls is common, but an out-of-state company can challenge where the case is heard.
Name the defendant exactly as it appears on the state registry, including “LLC” or “Inc.”
Step 5: Serve the company
After filing, the company has to be formally served before the hearing. In California small claims you can have the court clerk mail it by certified mail for a small fee, use a registered process server, or have an adult who isn’t part of the case deliver it. Serve the registered agent. File proof of service (SC-104) if the court needs it.
Step 6: The hearing
Bring three copies of everything: your contact log, screenshots, carrier records, the Registry confirmation, your demand letter with proof of delivery, and the state registry record showing who the company is. Keep it simple: when your number went on the Registry, how many times they contacted you, when you told them to stop, and how many times they contacted you after that.
Two things to know. Lawyers can’t represent either side at the hearing itself. And because the TCPA is a federal law, a company can sometimes try to move a case to federal court. That is uncommon for small amounts, but it happens.
Step 7: Collect
If the court rules for you and the company doesn’t pay, California has collection tools, including bank levies and wage or till taps through the sheriff. Some companies pay once there is a judgment, and some never do.
How long it takes
Setting up your phone and pulling the records takes about one evening. Identifying a company can take a day or several weeks. When a company does respond to a letter, a settlement often takes one to three months. A court date is usually 30 to 90 days after filing.