Legal Ease by
Shane Givens
May 26, 2011
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Why is my civil suit taking so long? Part II Last week we looked at the initial stages of a civil lawsuit. The most time-consuming part of a civil lawsuit, however, comes with what is legally known as the discovery phase. As I mentioned last week, state and federal law require full disclosure of all information in a civil lawsuit to the opposing party. Known as discovery, the process takes three basic forms: written discovery, document production, and depositions. Written discovery usually comes in the form of what are called interrogatories and requests for admission. Interrogatories are questions requiring your version of the facts and of your claims. If the questions asked are not fair questions or are difficult to understand, your attorney will help you decide what you should object to. Request for admission means asking a party to admit or deny certain facts pertaining to the case. There are penalties for not answering, for answering falsely, or even answering late. Document production is fairly self-explanatory. Any party has the right to see most documents that even arguably relate to a case. Gathering and going through these documents usually takes a lot of time, especially in more complex cases. Additionally, many courts are allowing access to computer files as part of document discovery. In cases where enough is at stake to justify it, the court can even allow litigants to reconstruct deleted files, such as e-mail. Depositions are sworn statements in response to questions asked by an attorney and given in front of a court reporter. Depositions can range in length from an hour to a week or more. Although all attorneys have their own strategies for depositions, there are basically three reasons for them: to lock people into their stories, to see what the other side has, and to do a “practice trial” – that is, to see how a witness will appear and conduct himself before a judge or jury. After the discovery phase is over, which will sometimes take several months, many times one party or another will collect all the information they have and make a motion for summary judgment to the court. By doing this, a party alleges that key facts are not disputed and requests that judgment be entered before an actual trial. If the judge believes the material facts of the case are not in dispute, he or she may consider the undisputed facts, apply the law to them, and make a judgment on some or all of the issues. To avoid a summary judgment, the opposing party must provide the court with evidence that shows the key facts are disputable. The last phase of a civil lawsuit is, of course, the trial. Although a trial is the most high-profile phase, the vast majority of civil disputes are resolved well before trial -- and in some cases before a lawsuit is even filed -- via settlement between the parties, alternative dispute resolution (ADR) processes such as mediation, or through dismissal of the case. This column is intended for general information purposes only. The answers to most legal problems rely on specific facts of a particular situation; therefore, it is very important to see a lawyer when these situations arise. Please e-mail questions for future columns to givenslaw@tds.net. |