Agent for service of process
The person or company a business designates to receive legal papers. For a California entity you find it on the Secretary of State's business search, and serving the wrong person can waste your filing.
Why it matters in a California small claims case
Small claims court is designed to be used without a lawyer, but it still runs on its own vocabulary, and a term you half-understand is a term that can cost you. "Agent for service of process" comes up often enough in California small claims practice to be worth knowing precisely rather than approximately.
If you are mid-dispute and trying to work out what to do next, the short version of the whole process is this: ask in writing, file SC-100, serve the defendant and prove it with SC-104, bring documents to the hearing, and if you win, collect using the post-judgment forms. Individuals can claim under $12,500; entities under $6,250.
Not legal advice
This is a plain-language definition for orientation, not advice about your case. Terms can carry a narrower meaning in a specific statute than they do in general use.