help to understand court letter mailed arangements

Rawbl,You could call the clerk, maybe they will tell you if they appeared. I would have stayed for the hearing to see if they didn't show so you could request dismissal with prejudice from the Judge at that point, but that's ok.Yes, I would file a Motion to Dismiss BEFORE the trial. Did you request to have a non-jury trial? If so, that why it is scheduled not too far.For the Motion to Dismiss, I believe it must be filed a certain time before the trial, so I would file one soon. Someone with more information on this will hopefully chime in, as I have not filed one of these before but I am familiar with them. I believe that you first need to contact the court's Calendar Clerk to schedule a motion to dismiss hearing date. Once this is done, you prepare and file your Motion to Dismiss (hearing date listed in the caption) with the court and serve a copy on the plaintiff.As far as the SOL. check your credit reports for the Date of First Delinquecy. Go by your own records, or the OC's. Even if you find that it's not SOL you can still file the MTD on the grounds along the lines that plaintiff's did not substantiate/prove the alleged debt belongs to you, etc. Is this a JDB or OC suing you? (there should be some good examples here) And also on the grounds that they are not procecuting the case (if this is true). Lastly, I would not want a trial before the judge or jury, I think it would be best to file the MTD soon, within the next week or two. honeycomb

 

I forgot to answer your last question.No, you don't wait for the 9/4/08 date to pass, because they filed suit on you already before this date (within sol). After the Calif 4 year SOL is up a suit cannot be filed against you.honeycomb

 

To go back to your question about waiting until 9/4, the answer is that 9/4 no longer matters.

Once the suit has been filed, the SOL is met. If the case isn't heard for months it doesn't matter as long as it was FILED before SOL expired. It could be filed on the last day.

 

Hi Rawbl,Sorry for the delay in responding.Yes, you must send the plaintiff a copy of everything that you file with the court and they must do the same, as this is court procedure.The MTD format should be on a 26 OR 28-line pleading paper, a 14 pt font, and double spaced (line # depends on what your court requires, I use 26). There are legal pleading templates in MS Word. You can also Google search MTD LA Superior Court to find some general examples as to the format.honeycomb

 

Rawbl,Here are some helpful links for the Court Rules California Superior Court:2008 California Rules of Court California Courts: Rules regarding Format Division 11,Chapter 2. Format of Motion Papershttp://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/rules/index.cfm?title=three&linkid=rule3_1110http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/rules/index.cfm?title=three&linkid=rule3_1112also see Chapter 5. Noticed MotionsRules regarding MTD, Chapter 6, Article 3 Rule 3.1342http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/rules/index.cfm?title=three&linkid=rule3_1342honeycomb

 

Now you are thinking. The trouble with only doing this, however, is that it puts you behind them in that they have to do something to you before you can do it back to them. In a fight, it's often better to punch the other guy in the nose before letting him punch you in the nose. A better plan might be to ALSO consider looking at various court cases and seeing what other lawyers have previously done in similar circumstances. This will require some effort but it might allow you to get ahead of the other side.

Do your court rules require a "discovery conference" before a motion to compel? Did that happen? If it didn't, then you should explain that you are pro se, explain that you've read the rules and the other side didn't follow them, cry a little, etc.

But did you answer the interrogatories? Lawyers don't ignore interrogatories or claim that they don't have to respond, they just object, even if those objections aren't really valid. Then you are expected to respond properly and force them to actually answer. It's a big game.

Did you follow the rules as to how this should be requested via discovery? If you didn't, you will almost certainly be ignored. If you did do this correctly, you probably won't get anything without a careful motion to compel and some luck.

Did the court order you to provide this information? Often in discovery there are plenty of shenanigans, this doesn't usually end in jail time.

Then they'd have a default and you could've spent your time watching the Olympics.

If you don't follow the rules, or even if you think you were but the judge disagrees, you can be sanctioned. Of course the other side can have the same thing happen to them.

If you don't file things with the court, the court won't know what is going on. All discovery doesn't have to be so filed, but your answer certainly should be.

Take whatever you are doing to the court, give them a copy for their file, ask that another copy be date stamped by the court and mail that to the Plaintiff. Remember that you often must add some number of days if you are using the mails.

What happens is up to the judge. If she thinks that sanctions are warranted, then they will be applied. Of course you haven't been compelled yet. If you did a few things wrong, find a few things they did wrong. Maybe the judge will split the difference and make them do something for you.

 

Even if they can't really get money from you, having a judgment over your head is unpleasant. And nothing says that they won't regularly try to get money from you. If you have only Social Security in an account, they might just try to take it claiming that it is to pay off a valid judgment. You are then stuck having to fight that.

You may also have assets that they can take or just harass you by attempting to take. This might be technically against some law or another (The FDCPA comes to mind) but you'll have to get up and make your case. So especially if there is no possible way you can pay, you might want to become as involved as possible as early as possible since eventually you probably will have no choice. By becoming involved early, you can learn and you can get your feet wet and maybe get some of the butterflies out of your stomach when you are talking to judges.

If you are involved with a "debt buyer", they deal all time with people who have no assets worth a hoot. In fact, a large part of the reason that the debt was sold was the previous owner concluded it wasn't worth bothering with. So it's unlikely that telling them that you are "judgment proof" will move them to too many tears.

 

I'm not sure that a motion to dismiss is the best way to start out. It doesn't seem to make sense that the judge would just dismiss without allowing the plaintiff time to develop his case through discovery.

I don't recall what you said they gave you, but if they just said "You owe money, pay me now" that might be responded to in a number of ways including maybe with something like a motion for a more definitive statement. You might read your rules on that. I really don't know what you should do, that's going to be up to you, and if you get one, your lawyer. Some have even appeared so they get all the materials served to them and then just asked for more information. This risks a default judgment if they don't respond with their answer before the other side gets in front of the judge for the default but it doesn't force you to come up with an answer without really getting anything from the plaintiff to actually answer.

Find out if your state is form or notice pleading. In a notice pleading state, the idea is that you have put your adversary on notice of the issues, not that you've exactly followed some perfect format. Of course not following the rules for format (etc.) at all can still get you in trouble.

Many people without lawyers seem unable to even write a word and print it out. I've watched judges repeat to people in court that they must file an "answer" and they keep asking whether that means they have to write something out. How else would someone file something? Of course I'm waiting for a judge to just admit that the whole point of the legal system is to kill trees, that's why they do everything double spaced and only on one side of the paper, first page starts about a third of way down.

 

Did you answer the discovery in the right way? That could be the problem. If they sent you discovery, you are supposed to respond to it by the rules, not in some extralegal way that you dreamed up. This is why it is so important to read the rules that are relevant to whatever portion of the process you in.

Not to overly harp on this, but did you ask for your discovery in the proper way? If you did, the best you can likely expect at this point is a bunch of baseless objections. But they will reply. Why? Because if you follow the rules, they have to reply or they risk being put in the spot you are in right now, motion to compel.

I'm not a lawyer, but that's about what I would do. Of course you thought you were doing the right thing, this is all new to you, you are pro se. You'd be happy to correctly answer their discovery and you have some discovery of your own that you need answered. You thought you were asking for that but your inexperience got the best of you. To properly defend your case, you have to have the following materials that only the plaintiff has. Include list. Ask for six month continuance. READ YOUR COURT RULES ON DISCOVERY. If you are in a state that follows its version of the federal rules, this is probably starting at about CR 26. If you are in a big state like New York or California, they are likely going to have their own scheme. You should find things to be similar, however.

Call the other side. Ask them for a six month continuance. They will explain to you that this is impossible as they really, really need to finish this one up right now. Write down that you talked to them attempting to get a continuance. You might also send some letters to them pleading for the continuance. You'll include copies of these letters in your motion for a continuance.

If it gets to the compel point, getting a continuance won't stop them from their motion, you'll have to respond and you could be sanctioned for not doing it correctly the first time. You might think about getting the right response into them as soon as possible, like yesterday. You can object if the objections are in good faith and are specific. Of course if they aren't valid, you could be sanctioned. Lawyers often play games with discovery and the response from the court will depend on the judge.

In all fairness to me, I've responded to every single response from you after I started responding. I think that's a pretty fair record, although it's not anything compared to that Olympic Phelps guy, wow.

They are taking you to court to essentially try to force you to respond.in the way that you are asking whether or not it is too late to do. If you think about it, that suggests that it isn't too late, granted you might have consequences due to your tardiness. I would prefer to be in court saying something like I responded correctly when I understood what I was supposed to do, your honor. I'm new to this. Please understand that I'm seriously trying to defend myself and follow the rules. If I make mistakes, it's not intentional, it's because this is complicated. That sort of meekness at the right moment might work wonders. But when the time comes for the kill, be ready for that too. This is a war, don't forget that.

 

Most people who are sued ignore the summons and just end up with a default against them. You are not generally required to defend yourself. Where the risk of jail comes is when you then ignore the "supplemental proceeding". That will likely get you a bench warrant and the next time a cop talks to you, say you have a burned out taillight, he'll take you downtown. I would say never ignore those sorts of court appointments.