Legal Question in Civil Litigation in California

If there was no trial, as you state, you cannot rely on a Motion for New Trial. Whether you should try a Motion to Vacate depends on how and why the dismissal was ordered. You have appeal rights, but you might need to file a Motion to vacate the judgment or a Motion to Reconsider the order of dismissal (if there is time) in order to raise potential appeal issues. Much depends on what were the reasons for the dismissal, and what the record currently reflects.

In short, you do not provide enough information for an attorney to property advise you. I am a certified appellate law specialist with 25 years of civil appellate experience. You may call my office for a further consultation.

Nothing contained in this communication is intended to be, or shall be deemed as, legal advice, counsel, or services to on or behalf of any person or any entity. Usage of the LawGuru website is not intended to and shall not create any obligation or relationship between the user and the Law Office of Herb Fox, including but not limited to, an attorney-client relationship. The Law Office of Herb Fox does not and cannot warrant that any communication between the user of this Web site and the Law Office of Herb Fox shall remain confidential. Finally, your situation may be governed by deadlines that may or may not have already lapsed, and you may lose your rights if you do or did not act within those deadlines.

You have to have a trial first, to file a motion for a new trial.

An order of dismissal is considered a judgment, so a motion to vacate the judgment may apply, depending on the reasons for the dismissal. �All dismissals ordered by the court �and those orders when so filed shall constitute judgments and be effective for all purposes, and the clerk shall note those judgments in the register of actions in the case.� (Code Civ. Proc., � 581d). A judgment of dismissal terminates the action and is directly appealable. (Code Civ. Proc., � 904.1, subd. (a)(1).)

If you are representing yourself and your case was dismissed, no motion you make is going to be successful. And if you think you had a tough time at the trial court level, just wait until you see all the ways you can get your appeal thrown out for both substantive and technical reasons. More likely though, you will just lose your right to appeal without knowing it for failure to meet one of mandatory deadlines on appeal (quite possibly you already have). Quite frankly, if you are a plaintiff and have a legitimate case, you can find an attorney. If you can't find an attorney who will take your case on contingency, either you have no legitimate grounds for a case, or your case is too small to waste anyone's time with. Bottom line: if you can't afford an attorney you must be able to afford to lose. At this point you have already lost. You have no hope of undoing that without an attorney. So you should find one or give up. And I'm not saying that to be harsh. It's just true.