Understanding Court Motions and Resolving Your Case Before Trial

Motion to Dismiss Your Case

In the early stages of the litigation, a motion to dismiss can be filed before the parties involved conduct “discovery”. All materials presented in the complaint and exhibits to the complaint are the focus of this kind of motion. This occurs when the defendant believes that the complaint is invalid in a legal sense. When it is decided that a motion should be dismissed, this means the court has viewed the facts set forth in the complaint and favored the view of the plaintiff.

The motion to dismiss is generally based on one or more of the listed legal deficiencies:

Lack of Personal Jurisdiction

This is when the court does not have the power to make decisions that affect the defendant personally. If you do not have sufficient minimum contacts with the place where the lawsuit was filed, the court lacks jurisdiction over you. A good example of this is if you are an involved in a vehicle accident while on vacation in San Francisco, but you live in North Carolina and are being sued by the other party who resides in Montana, you would have a good claim to say that the Montana court has no jurisdiction over you.

Lack of Subject Matter Jurisdiction

This means the court has no power to rule on the issue.

Improper Venue

In legal terms, “venue” refers to the specific location of the court. States have specific statuses that stipulate places within the state where you can be sued. The site of the lawsuit is deemed inappropriate if you are not sued in one of those specified places. Even in circumstances where the court has personal jurisdiction over you, a venue may be deemed legally inappropriate. In most instances, the case is not dismissed but ordered to be transferred to a proper venue to solve this problem.

Failure to State a Claim Upon Which Relief May Be Granted

Sometimes, your lawyer will conclude that the facts laid down in the formal complaint actually do not state a legal claim or relief. An example of this is when the complaint alleges that your negligent act that caused injury to the plaintiff. According to the circumstances described in the complaint, the law may provide that you do not owe any responsibility to look out for the plaintiff. When you do not have a legal responsibility for the plaintiff, then you can not be held liable for the plaintiff’s injuries.

Insufficiency of Process or Insufficient Service of Process

When there is a technical defect in the summons (in very rare circumstances), a case may be dismissed. Also, if you were not properly served with the summons and the complaint, your case may be dismissed. The latter is most common for dismissal. Be sure to explain in detail to your lawyer how you were served because service can be deemed inappropriate for numerous reasons, and they may be able to determine how the case can be dismissed before trial.

Sua Sponte Dismissal

This refers to an instance when a motion for dismissal is issued by the court, but was not requested by either party to the lawsuit. “Sua sponte” means of “one’s accord”- in other words, “voluntarily.” Often, a judge orders a sua sponte dismissal if it is determined that there are problems with the trial itself. For example, a judge may decide to dismiss a case when they realize the court lacks jurisdiction.

Motion For Default Judgement

When a defendant fails to answer the complaint or file a motion to dismiss within the time limit that is set forth in the summons, the court can deem that the defendant is “in default.” If a defendant is in default, the plaintiff may ask the court clerk to note this on file; this procedure is referred to as “entry of default.” This is a serious circumstance because it means that since the defendant failed to appear, they will not be able to contest whether he or she is liable to the plaintiff. The only point of dispute will be in regards to how much the plaintiff should receive in damages. The defendant is sent a notice stating that default has been entered against him or her.

If you have further questions regarding how motions work and the different motions that your lawyer can make, personal injury lawyers have the knowledge and experience to discover the opportunity to avoid trial or weaken the opposition’s arguments by using motions.