No. Not only is the defendant excused from appearing in court (assuming they filed a notice of the bankruptcy with the court), you actually have an affirmative duty to dismiss the small claims case pursuant to federal law. The case should be dismissed without prejudice, so you can re-file if his bankruptcy case ends up getting dismissed without a discharge being entered. You may have independent grounds to object to the discharge of your debt, but without knowing the facts, I can't opine further on that.

Mark J. Markus, Attorney at Law

Handling exclusively bankruptcy law cases in California since 1991.

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