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Proven signature service request

the first type of discovery that I like to talk about is the request for admissions the idea behind the request for admissions is really simple if the sides in a lawsuit agree upon a particular fact no one should have to prove it this should save everyone time effort and money so a procedure was created where one side can ask the other side to admit that a set of facts are true or the documents are genuine and if they're admitted then they don't need to be proven as true at trial and the court will simply assume them to be true in the context of self represented litigants however I've tend to see this use to sucker-punch them the reason for this is because the penalty for failing to respond to a request for admissions is particularly brutal specifically if one side sends out a request for admissions and the other side does not respond to them then the side that set them out can file a motion with the court asking the court to deem that each of the facts are true or documents are genuine so what will often happen in a case involving a self represented party is one side will send out all of the facts that are necessary to prove the case or a defense and ask that they be admitted when there's no response a motion to deem these admissions as admitted is filed once this motion is filed if the responding party does not serve responses to the requests for admissions prior to the date of the motion then the court will deem each of the facts to be true or documents are genuine as a result if the requesting party had requested each of the facts necessary to win the case be deemed true the responding party has effectively lost the case if responses are served prior to the motion they will not be deemed true however this type of motion carries with it mandatory attorneys fee sanctions so the side filing the motion will request its attorneys fees for the costs to filing the motion and these attorneys fees are due there are not a response is served prior to the date of the motion as a result a number of law offices are very anxious to file this type of motion upon the responding party missing their deadline to respond the procedure for propounding a request for admissions is the same as every other type of discovery we are discussing during this presentation first the asking side completes the request for admissions form and attachment or creates their own request for admissions on 28 line pleading paper a copy of this request for admissions is then served on the responding party if the responding party is either the plaintiff or a defendant who has already filed the first appearance in the case such as an answer service by mail is acceptable and a copy of the proof of service is mailed along with the request the original request for admissions and proof of service are retained by the asking party they are not filed with the court at this time although it is possible to create your own request for admissions using 28 line pleading paper during this presentation we will be using the Judicial Council form di SC 0 to 0 which simplifies the process somewhat this form is somewhat self-explanatory and follows the formatting conventions of any other Judicial Council form in the top box where it says attorney or party without attorney since you are representing yourself this will be your name address telephone number and where it says attorney for improper in the box that says Superior Court of California County of write the name of the county in which your case is being heard as well as the court address and the branch name of the court short title is the last name of the plaintiff the letter V for versus and the last name of the defendant if either of these parties is a corporate entity LLC or other business entity you may use an abbreviated version of that party's name in the as it says case number right the case number of your case and finally in the box that says request for admissions you will have two check boxes one that says truth of facts the other that says genuineness of documents if you are going to ask the responding side to answer whether or not a fact is true check truth of facts if you're asking them to admit that documents are genuine check genuineness of documents be sure to check at least one of these two boxes and it is possible to use both of them the name of the requesting party is your name the responding party is the name of the party that you wish to respond this is not the name of the attorney on the other side or any individual witness inside a corporation or LLC unless that person is listed as a plaintiff or a defendant in the case if the responding party is a corporation they will choose the person most knowledgeable who will respond and verify their responses set number will start at 1 if this is the first set of requests for admissions that you are sending to a particular party you set 1 if this is the second set to that same party set 2 and so on now I'd like to show you something that will make you smarter than some of the attorneys out there if you go ahead and look toward the middle of the page you will see a date and signature line for some reasons some attorneys can't resist the urge to date and sign whenever given the opportunity however if you read this very carefully you will realize that the date and signature line is actually part of the instructions to the responding party and asking party in the case this portion of the instruction simply tells the responding party that they should have the following language above their signature line I declare under penalty of perjury under the laws of the state of California that the foregoing answers are true and correct your signature line will be at the bottom at the bottom of the page you will notice that there are two numbered paragraphs 1 and 2 each one has a checkbox if you checked truth affects at the top of the page check box 1 each of the following facts are there's this tiny spot that you can use to write the facts that you wish the other side to use however the space is really not good for more than perhaps one fact so you'll probably check the continued on attachment in one box instead if you checked truth of documents up at the top of the page check box number two and once again check the continued on attachment to box if you plan on attaching another page rather than use the tiny space provided then at the bottom of the page print your name on the left-hand side your signature will be on the right-hand side if you check the continued on attachment one box attach an additional page and label at attachment one at the top this is typically done on 28 line pleading paper however you may use any blank sheet of paper or the attachment to Judicial Council form below the word attachment one have a numbered list with each numbered item asking the other side to admit a single fact each numbered item may contain only one fact so if you find yourself using the word end or semicolons periods or many commas you are probably asking the other side to admit two or more different facts and the request would be objectionable as impermissibly compound each fact that you ask should establish one of the elements that you need to establish for one of your causes of action if you are the plaintiff or one of the elements you need to establish for one of your affirmative defenses if you're the defendant you may also use the request to try to establish a fact that would disprove one of the facts necessary for the plaintiff to establish a cause of action if you're the defendant or disprove one of the elements that would establish a an affirmative defense if you're the plaintiff I typically like to write the request in the form admit that just to remind myself of what type of question that I'm asking as you write these requests be sure to always write the request so that if the fact is deemed true it helps your case one time I had a person come through who had a beautifully written set of requests for admissions he had served this on the attorney for the other side and received no response I read the requests and it had things such as admit that the plaintiff entered into an agreement with the defendant on and then a specific date admit that the defendant breached the agreement on a specific date admit that the plaintiff has been harmed by the breach etc and as I read through all of these they all seemed very good as they'd establish one it would establish the causes of action in the complaint and then I realized that I was talking to the defendant because the remedy if the responding side doesn't respond is to ask the court for an order deeming that each of the admissions is true had he filed a motion to deem them all true he would have lost his case so it's obvious why the other side didn't answer so be sure to write your request so that if they are true they help your case many self represented litigants also make the mistake of putting too much into their requests for admissions although these are useful for taking facts off of the table assuming that the other side responds they're generally not particularly useful for obtaining new information about the case or obtaining any type of evidence all that can be asked with a request for admissions is that the other side admit that something is true or deny that it is true you do not get to ask any who what when why how or when questions those are interrogatories which we'll talk about in just a bit one of the most common questions I receive is how can I know what I should ask the other side to admit perhaps the best source for knowing the facts that need to be established in your case is to read the jury instructions for each cause of action or the jury instructions for each affirmative defense that has been raised in the case if you've ever served on a jury you know that after the case is completed and you are sent to deliberate the judge will give you a set of instructions detailing what you must find to establish each of the causes of action by the plaintiff or each of the affirmative defenses by the defendant these instructions were generally not made up but come from a standardized set of instructions used by the court these can be downloaded at wwq SCA gov / Partners / jury instructions HTML although this book is long it is well indexed and there is one or more jury instruction for each cause of action that can be brought and each affirmative defense that can be raised if you read these instructions they will describe in roughly plain English what you must establish and if you know it must be established you know the facts that you must prove to establish that and therefore what you must ask the other side to admit