Legal Question in Civil Litigation in California

Unfortunately, this is one of the difficulties of being your own lawyer. Not only do you have to appear in court, but you must write your own briefs and learn the rules and the laws applicable to your case. You would have to go to the law library and research each case that your opposition cites in his/her brief.. Then you would want to find a case that contradicts their case or stands for the proposition that supports your case. To a limited extent, the librarian might direct you to the right books. Then you're on your own. And, you will have to write it up in a coherent fashion to make sense to the judge and convince the judge to rule in your favor. Depending on the type of motion that it is, you might also want to have the court examine evidence that supports your claim. You do this by writing a declaration signed under penalty of perjury, laying the foundation for the attached documents, and attaching the declaration with exhibits to your memorandum of points and authorities.

You have reached the point where you now realize you are in over your head. You're not going to be able to magically learn how to write a persuasive legal memorandum in the few days you have left to file and serve your response. So you can either afford a lawyer, or you can afford to lose the case. One or the other.

The judge is asking for legal points and legal authorities to defend your alleged position. You will lose if you cannot resent these - you need an attorney. I may be able to put something together for you relatively inexpensively.

Best,

Daniel Bakondi, Esq.

[email protected]

415-450-0424

The Law Office of Daniel Bakondi

870 Market Street, Suite 1161

San Francisco CA 94102

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Points and Authorities is another name for a legal brief containing your arguments in support of your case, and a description of the cases and statutes that you claim support your case, along with citations to the cases and statutes that you discuss. It is not something many non-lawyers could even begin to attempt to write. So you can't find the "Points." You have to make them up youself. The Authorities you find in the law library. The declaration is a statement of facts that you "declare" to be true under penalty of perjury. Again you can't find these, you have to write them up. And you cannot include any facts in your points unless they are in your declaration. And all this needs to be written up in the proper format on pleading paper.