Restaurant-Customer-Complaint-Letter-Template.jpg' alt='Time To File Demurrer To Amended Complaint Form' title='Time To File Demurrer To Amended Complaint Form' />Foolish Attorney Ten Ways to Make Yourself Look Bad. Ive had this article in mind for quite some time. I see attorneys make the same mistakes over and over, and I thought by posting an article listing those mistakes, I would have a place to send them to explain, in the nicest possible terms, that they are making themselves look like idiots. Audio Crackle Removal on this page. The article idea sat on the back burner because I had not witnessed these mistakes for awhile. I was almost beginning to believe that with the ease of information retrieval via the Internet, perhaps attorneys had finally figured out these mistakes on their own. Foolish me. I saw opposing counsel in three of my cases make some of these mistakes just this week. Most of these mistakes are specific to California civil procedure, but Im sure even if you practice in another state you will have attorneys making similar mistakes under your procedural rules. Im sorry this article is so long, but attorneys do a lot of boneheaded things. Feel free to direct other attorneys here when you see them making these mistakes. Making a threat not based in reality. Earlier this week, my firm substituted into a case involving a business tort. There had been problems with the clients discovery responses before we got involved, and the day after we came into the case there was a hearing on a motion to compel. I successfully persuaded the court to reduce the sanctions sought against the client, but the court appropriately awarded about 6. Two days later I received a faxed letter from opposing counsel, demanding that our client pay the 6. The letter explained that if my client did not pay those sanctions with 4. There is no sanctions for failing to pay discovery sanctions motion. Sanctions can be reduced to a judgment, making all the normal methods for collecting a judgment available, but the court cannot force the payment of discovery sanctions. Even if there were such a motion, no court would impose additional sanctions for sanctions that had not been paid in four days. Sanctions ordered paid to the court are a different matter of course. I wrote back to opposing counsel, asking him to provide the authority for seeking sanctions for failing to pay sanctions, and advising him that if he felt it was a good use of his time to prepare, file and argue whatever motion he had in mind in order to recover 6. I did anticipate that he would have the check in the next ten days if he could be patient. Ever helpful, I provide him with The Rutter Group citation explaining how discovery sanctions are recovered section 9 1. Civil Procedure Before Trial if you want to check me. He wrote back, acknowledging that he was not aware of any authority, and thanked me in advance for the check. What did that threat from opposing counsel accomplish, other than to show he does not know what he is talking aboutYou know what happens when you cry wolf. Never make a toothless threat. If you are going to posture, make sure the law backs you up. Otherwise you just look bad. UPDATE This precise scenario arose in a current case, with me coming into the case on the eve of a motion to compel. This time, counsel screamed that he was going to seek a contempt order if my client did not pay the sanctions by a certain date. Again, ever helpful, I pasted this article into the bottom of my reply email and advised him that failure to pay court ordered discovery sanctions is not enforced by a contempt procedure. Ive provided an article below that provides information on how the failure to pay court ordered discovery sanctions is handled. He responded with the technique often employed on elementary school playgrounds, where the child who was just beaten at tether ball turns to the victor and says, yeah, well youre ugly. The Art Of Card Throwing Rick Smith Jr S more. His response was, If your own opinion, as expressed on your own blog, is the sole foundation for your position. Did he not see the citation to The Rutter GroupSample Student Loan Debt Validation Letter Free download as Word Doc. PDF File. pdf, Text File. This sample student loan. CHAPTER 3. The Time of Commencing Actions Other Than for the Recovery of Real Property 335 349. Chapter 3 enacted 1872. Superior Court of the State of California. County of Orange. DEPT C18 TENTATIVE RULINGS. Judge Theodore R. Howard. The court will hear oral argument on all matters. As used in this section 1 Complaint includes a crosscomplaint. Defendant includes a person filing an answer to a crosscomplaint. Time To File Demurrer To Amended Complaint Form' title='Time To File Demurrer To Amended Complaint Form' />Many attorneys erroneously believe that advocacy involves lots of threats, arm waving and posturing. Recently I was bringing an ex parte application in a real property dispute. Our local rules require notice to the other side at least 2. I can only know if you oppose the application by asking. Star Wars Svensk Tal. I am all about giving proper notice, because I dont want to have to come back to court again when opposing counsel claims they did not have sufficient notice, so I provide notice by phone and in writing. One of the opposing attorneys was not available by phone, so I left a voice mail and then faxed and emailed a letter, asking in all instances if he intended to oppose the application. He responded to the email, stating that he would appear in court and VEHEMENTLY oppose your motion. Im not kidding. Capital letters and two exclamation points the bold was my own touch. What was the point of that Its not enough to tell me that you will oppose the application you have to make clear that you are REALLY, REALLY going to oppose the motionStill ever helpful, I replied to the email, telling him to remember to breathe while being all vehement. True to his word, he was very loud and animated at the hearing, questioning at some point if I had really attended law school as I recall, but I won the motion naturellement. Im sure he felt worse than he would have if he had just opposed the motion, and not been quite so vehement. I learned a long time ago that posturing accomplishes nothing. The other side already knows the strength or weaknesses of their case or defense as well as yours, so posturing wont change anything in that regard, and if you lose after a lot of posturing, you just feel stupid. Failing to understand service and how the USPS works. I sometimes wonder if there is a practice guide or seminar that offers these bad litigation tips that seem to reappear every six months or so. This is one I had not seen for quite some time, and then up it jumps again. In another real estate case, we timely responded to some discovery propounded by the other side. Three days later, we received a letter from opposing counsel, explaining that he had not received the responses, that we had therefore waived all objections, and that if he did not get the responses in a week without objections, he would move to compel, get millions in sanctions, sell our children into slavery, and all the other usual nonsense. Let me walk you through this so you never embarrass yourself like this attorney. How quickly you receive something mailed by opposing counsel depends on a number of factors, including when each sides office has mail pick up and delivery. Our fine Legislature recognized this, and built it into the system. Thats why you get a full five extra days to respond to service by mail. Lets say the fine people from the USPS do not pick up mail from your office until 3 0. You prepare your discovery responses for service, give them to your secretary, and she prepares the proof of service, indicating it was mailed on that day. To keep it simple, lets say she mailed the discovery responses on a Monday. But mailed does not mean she put it in a mailbox. The service statute provides that she can put it in the outgoing mail basket for mailing following ordinary business practices. Most offices dont make multiple runs to the mailbox throughout the day. In our hypothetical office, the procedure would probably be to run mail to the box before 3 0.