Citibank is suing my mom who is in a nursing home on medicaid. In addition to the answer to the suit, we put in a countersuit. The court requires a filing fee for the countersuit which wasn't paid, so they just filed the paperwork but will not hear the countersuit until the fees are paid. Citibank just set a hearing to dismiss the countersuit. Prior to that they motioned for it to be dismissed because it didn't include any legal arguments. The court ignored them entirely on that motion. Most likely because no fees were paid. I think Citibank's lawers are not aware the fees haven't been paid and it's not an active countersuit. How can they move to dismiss something that isn't active yet? Should I just ignore the hearing? Or ask to have it cancelled? Besides, if we have to pay a fee I'd rather file in Federal court being that they are probably going to motion that it be move there anyway being that Citibank is located in another state. And this time we will includesome legal arguments. The haven't set a hearing for the initial lawsuit either. I think they want to get the countersuit out of the way first. They seem intimidated. Thank you, YCSGW
Litigants can file motions that say anything they want them to say. That doesn't mean that it's right or the right thing to do or won't get them in trouble or whatever. You are agreeing with them that the countersuit has no merit? Ignoring hearings is usually not a good idea. Why would they think that would matter? Are they seeking to dismiss with prejudice? Consider the potential res judicata implications. They are probably being careful, which is one thing they are paid to do.
1) Citibank is a worthy opponent insofar as they typically retain excellent counsel. 2) Counters are hard to prove up against them. What are yours? 3) Assuming you can prove up counters, you need to pay the fees now. If you drop the ball here they have all the leverage. 4) They cannot remove the action on a counter.
