Legal Question in Civil Litigation in California
defendant won't respond
I filed a lawsuit against a woman, her small LLC and DOES 1-25.
She and her company responded via General Denial. I sent her
company (haven't sent her any yet) interrogatories. The company
did not respond. I filed a motion against the company. The motion
was granted and I was awarded sanctions. The defendants did
not attend the hearing. Nor did they attend the Case MAnagement
Conference (the same day). Nor did they respond to my attempts
to meet and confer. I now have a Trial Setting Conference which I
would bet they will not attend. And finally, of course, I doubt they
will answer my interrogatories as ordered or pay me sanctions as
awarded. I am in Pro Per.
I am lookiing into all of my options for my next step should they not
respond as the court ordered. I do not want to file default since it is
imperative I learn the identites of the other defendants (DOE 1-25)
as well as other info (take my word for it). Do I file an OSC (order to
show cause)? How do I inform the court of the lack of action or ask
the court to take more action? Another Motion?
Thanks
2 Answers from Attorneys
Re: defendant won't respond
When they don't respond to the Court's order compelling the defendants to provide responses to the interrogatories, you make a motion for terminating sanctions. When successful, you can then file documents necessary to prove up and obtain a judgment.
Let me know if you would like to consult regarding this matter. The motions are pretty routine and I have done this several times.
Caleb
J. Caleb Donner
DONNER & DONNER
LEGAL WARRIORS (R)
325 E. Hillcrest Drive, Suite 242
Thousand Oaks, CA 91360
Tel: 805-494-6557
Fax: 805-494-0990
website: www.legalwarriors.com
email: [email protected]
Re: defendant won't respond
Mr. Donner's answer is quite correct. He didn't address your concern about learning the identities of the Doe defendants, so I want to add a few words to his response.
There really is nothing you can do to get the defendants to participate if they don't want to. The fact that they have ignored prior discovery, motions and court orders suggests that they will continue doing so. Seeking an OSC or bringing more motions seems unlikely to do any good. If they are the only potential sources of the names of these other defendants then you may not be able to get that information via this lawsuit.
If you get your judgment against the woman and her business and then try to enforce it, you may then learn who the Does are. By that time, though, collecting from them will be her problem and not yours.
One further thought: did the LLC have an attorney when it filed its answer? Individuals can file in pro per but business entities cannot. Thus, if the LLC tried to file without counsel its answer should be strikable. On the other hand, if it does have an attorney and the attorney is ignoring the case, the court and the state bar are likely to make a lot of trouble for him down the road.
(Of course, all of this assumes you have properly been serving your papers all along. If the defendants are in pro per then you should be serving them directly, but if they have counsel you need to serve the attorneys instead.)