DV-115: a new hearing date when the papers were not served in time — without losing the TRO

Form DV-109 sets the deadline this form answers: at least five days before the hearing — unless the court set a different deadline — someone 18 or older who is not you and not a protected person must personally serve the restrained person with a file-stamped copy of the notice and the rest of the packet. When the court date is close and service has not happened, the case does not have to die there.

The form itself says why in plain words. Among the reasons you can check on DV-115: “I need more time to have the restrained party personally served.” Asking for a new hearing date because service failed is not a workaround — it is a printed checkbox on a mandatory form.

DV-115-INFO, “How to Ask for a New Hearing Date,” lists who can ask: the protected party who is “unable to have form DV-109, Notice of Court Hearing, and other papers served in time before your court date,” and the restrained party when “it is your first time asking the court to reschedule your court date.”

Beyond those two, the sheet states the court may grant a request to reschedule “on a showing of ‘good cause’” — a good reason for needing a new court date. Whether a particular reason is good cause is the judge’s call, not something a form or a website can promise.

This is the question people are actually asking when they search for this form, and the official answer is printed in two places. DV-115-INFO: “If your court date is rescheduled and a Temporary Restraining Order (form DV-110) was granted, that order will be extended until the end of your new court date, unless the court decides to modify or terminate it.” The sheet defines the word, too: “‘Extend’ means to keep any temporary orders in effect until the new court date.”

The DV-115 form itself carries the same statement: if your court date is rescheduled, the TRO (form DV-110) will remain in effect until the end of the new court date. A continuance done through this form is not a gap in protection.

The court’s decision arrives on form DV-116, Order on Request to Continue Hearing. California Courts describes it simply: it tells you that your court date has been rescheduled and whether a temporary restraining order is in effect.

A new date means serving the other party again. DV-115-INFO states the other party must be served a copy of the court papers, and that you should ask the person who serves them to complete a proof of service — form DV-200, Proof of Personal Service, if service was in person, or form DV-250, Proof of Service by Mail, where mail service applies — and to make two copies of the completed forms. A continuance granted but never served lands you back at the same wall on the new date.

DV-115 has been in effect since January 1, 2020; the current DV-115-INFO took effect January 1, 2026. Both are published on their official California Courts pages with Spanish, Chinese (Simplified), Korean, and Vietnamese translations of the form itself — the document you file, not a summary of it.

JusticeOS is not a law firm and does not give legal advice. Whether a continuance is granted, and on what terms, is the judge’s decision; this page describes what the Judicial Council’s own forms and instruction sheets say about asking.