Legal Question in Administrative Law in California

Re: Witnesses at a civil lawsuit

Mr. Selik is entirely correct. In the cases allowing for punitive damages, rarely are they awarded. The facts you give us do not even imply that there could have been the extreme type of behavior that would allow the jury to consider punitive damages. In property damage cases, pain and suffering ususally will only be tried if the defendant could reasonably anticipate that the plaintiff would suffer more emotional distress than the average person [such as waking up in bed and finding the head of your favorite horse under the covers with you [how would he not smell it and wake up sooner?]].

Anyone with competent testimony can testify, but from a jury's biases, the only thing less credible than the 15.5 year old son and the wife of an [absentee?] landlord testifing is the head of R.J Reynolds saying he did not know smoking is harmful.

If the defendant will pay all of your out of pocket damage, including the physical daage to the rental unit, the loss of rent from the tenant not being to live there, the time of lost from work because of having to work on the unit, reasonable compenstion for the time you and family members spent trying to repair the unit, costs of filing this lawsuit, take the money and run.

At the conference, the judge can not dismiss any part of your suit but will probably tell you you will not be allowed to bring it up at trial.

Re: Witnesses at a civil lawsuit

The judge won't take evidence, let witnesses testify, or make dispositive rulings on matters of substance at a case management conference. The purpose of a CMC is to acquaint the judge with the general nature of the case and to keep the court informed of matters relating to scheduling and future processing of the case so that unnecessary delays are avoided. Most of them last less than five minutes.

The most consequential thing that may happen at most CMCs is an order directing the parties to participate in some kind of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) such as mediation or so-called judicial arbitration. You can get a list of CMC subjects to be considered and appropriate for a case management order at Rules of Court 3.727 and 3.728, respectively.

The judge at the CMC may or may not be the same judge who will preside at trial - courts differ. The CMC judge may give you some advice about your claims and future procedure, but will not make any adjudications requiring evidence or testimony.

Re: Witnesses at a civil lawsuit

The CMC is not used to take any evidence, no witnesses, no ajudication of any issues.

We do not see, from your facts, what the case is about, but you may not be entitled to pain and suffering in many cases, and there are specific requirements for punitive damages.