Legal Question in Civil Litigation in California

The maximum sanction is issue preclusions, meaning they will be prohibited from introducing evidence or even arguing certain issues. Generally, however, that is only after violation of repeated orders to comply. On a first motion to compel responses, sanctions are almost always limited to reimbursing your attorneys fees. Of course if you are pro se, then the sanctions would be nominal. The only exception is requests for admissions, which are deemed admitted if not denied in the time allowed, although you have to file a motion to have them deemed admitted, and they may be granted leave to deny late, upon payment of your attorneys fees, but again, you won't have any. You should be aware, however, that failure to honor a good faith request for an extension of time to respond to discovery, particularly when they have yet even to file an answer because there is a demurrer pending, is considered a bad faith discovery practice that can result in YOU being sanctioned if they make a motion for an extension. The court can grant them an extension even if you will not, and can sanction you for refusing the request. And I bet the attorneys who work for Chase will NOT be charging nominal fees. You also need to realize that the Case Management Conference is a VERY preliminary proceeding. Often discovery is barely started and sometimes not started at all by the time of the CMC in most cases. So you are just wrong that it would harm you. Quite frankly, sending discovery before an answer is on file is a very agressive and hostile move. You are not allowed to use any discovery responses in opposing a demurrer, since demurrers must be decided on the basis of your complaint alone, not any evidence. So, in fact, no discovery you could have sent could possibly be relevant to their demurrer. The bottom line is that the fact I have to explain these basics of litigation to you, makes it VERY clear that you are WAY over your head. This stuff is the simplest it will get in the case. It only gets harder and more complicated from here. I have never, in nearly 25 years of litigation practice, ever seen a pro se plaintiff even get to trial when the defendants have had attorneys. Sooner or later you are going to get your case thrown out because you don't know what you are doing, the attorneys for Chase will pounce on your mistake, and the court will take the opportunity to rid itself of one more problem pro se plaintiff clogging up the court calendar. As one of the other panel attorneys here is fond of saying, if you can't afford an attorney, you must be able to afford to lose the case, because that is exactly what will happen if you handle it yourself with your lack of knowledge of the law and civil procedure.

Mr. McCormick is correct in his statements. You do need to have an attorney help you and certainly for any mediation,arbitration, or trial of the case. The Chase claims adjusters will give their attorneys very little authority to settle because they anticipate you will never make it to trial.

I am not sure that answering your discovery requests might not be taken by the court as the defendant acknowledging the court's jurisdiction, so it would be prejudical to them to answer.

I disagree with Mr. McCormick. The maximum sanctions is terminating sanctions, not issue sanctions. Terminating sanctions means that the defendant's answer is stricken, and a default is entered. Issue sanctions are the next most severe.

In your situation, however, the first set of sanctions would not be either issue or terminating sanctions. It would be monetary sanctions. Monetary sanctions on a motion to compel are the reasonable attorney's fees incurred in meeting and conferring and filing the motion. Since you don't have an attorney, that pretty much limits you to an award of paper, mailing costs, and the filing fee for the motion, which is currently $40.00.

As you can see, the big law firm representing the bank does not see you as a big threat.