What is mandatory relief under section 473, subdivision (b) of the Attorney Fault Act?

Mandatory relief under the attorney fault provision of section 473, subdivision (b) reads, "Notwithstanding any other requirements of this section, the court shall, whenever an application for relief is made no more than six months after entry of judgment, is in proper form, and is accompanied by an attorney's sworn affidavit attesting to his or her mistake, inadvertence, surprise, or neglect, vacate any . . . resulting default judgment or dismissal entered against his or her client, unless the court finds that the default or dismissal was not in fact caused by the attorney's mistake, inadvertence, surprise, or neglect. The court shall, whenever relief is granted based on an attorney's affidavit of fault, direct the attorney to pay reasonable compensatory legal fees and costs to opposing counsel or parties." ( 473, subd. (b), italics added.) "Where, as here, the applicability of the mandatory relief provision does not turn on disputed facts and presents a pure question of law, our review is de novo." (SJP Limited Partnership v. City of Los Angeles (2006) 136 Cal.App.4th 511, 516 (SJP).)

The aim of the mandatory provision is "to relieve the innocent client of the burden of the attorney's fault, to impose the burden on the erring attorney, and to avoid precipitating more litigation in the form of malpractice suits." (Rodriguez v. Brill (2015) 234 Cal.App.4th 715, 723.)

If the conditions for relief under the mandatory provision of section 473, subdivision (b) are met, relief is compulsory (Younessi v. Woolf (2016) 244 Cal.App.4th 1137, 1147), and the "trial court does not have discretion to refuse relief." (SJP, supra, 136 Cal.App.4th at p. 516.)

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