Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in California
exhibit s in case
I receieived a motion for summary judgment today on a case and it came with exhibits. It had only three exhibits, does this mean that is all they have or can they have more evidence and not show it to me?
2 Answers from Attorneys
Re: exhibit s in case
You already asked this question, and I've already answered it.
If you are going to attempt to defend a motion for summary judgment, you will need to prepare, file, and serve 1- An opposition to the motion containing admissible evidence and a memorandum of law; 2- A separate statement of undisputed and disputed material facts, both documents must be in the precise format required by the Code of Civil Procedure and the California Rules of Court. Detailed instructions, at least on a procedural level, can be found in Rutter Group Civil Procedure Before Trial. Even if you were to tackle the formidable amount of paperwork involved, you would still need to know, or learn, what evidence is needed to defeat the summary judgment motion and how to effectively present it to the court in your opposing papers. Responding to a summary judgment motion is a difficult task even for trained lawyers.
If you don't know what evidence they have, this means you haven't done any discovery yet, and therefore you are not competently representing yourself. Please carefully consider your own limitations in terms of your legal skills before attempting to proceed further on your own.
If you thought that all you had to do was file a general denial form with the court to have the court hear your case, you were wrong. Failure to properly oppose summary judgment motions, and the failure to propound discovery, are the ways most self-represented litigants lose their cases. I would hate to see this happen to you, as from what you said in your last question you appear to have a strong case.
Please feel free to contact me by email or telephone.
Re: exhibit s in case
The exhibits are not all the evidence they have, rather, it is all the evidence that they feel is necessary to prevail on that particular motion. If you want to know what else they have, you need to conduct discovery. There are deadlines for doing so in civil matters, so you may wish to consult with an attorney.
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