Following Solv-All v. Superior Court (2005) 131 Cal.App.4th 1003 and distinguishing and disagreeing with Jerry’s Shell v. Equilon Enterprises, LLC (2005) 134 Cal.App.4th 1058, this decision holds that a trial court must set aside a default that the defendant’s attorney declares was his fault, even if a deliberately chosen, but bad, strategy rather than an inadvertent error. Here the default was entered for failing to file a timely answer, not for a calculated campaign of discovery abuse, as in Jerry’s Shell.