Anatomy of a Case

Discovery – Tools Deposition

A Deposition is a discovery tool where the parties and key witnesses are summoned to the office of an attorney or other location, and under penalty of perjury, asked a number of questions related (and sometimes unrelated) to the lawsuit. These depositions can be excruciatingly difficult for the party being asked the questions.

Appeals

If you are the Plaintiff or the Defendant and you lose, you are often entitled to appeal. However, attorneys have often heard persons claim "they would appeal to the Supreme Court." You need to check the law in your state, because some states do not even allow appeals, others only allow the Defendant to appeal. The court clerk will have a copy of the Appeal Rules for your jurisdiction.

Discovery, An Introduction

Discovery is much of the process in any lawsuit. It is the term that describes what is supposed to happen between the filing of the lawsuit and the trial. The purpose is for each side to "discover" all of the facts and information that the other side has to either prove (Plaintiff’s claims) or disprove (Defendant’s case) the statements or allegations in the Petition.

After Trial

Collection: Winning your case in court is often only 10% of the problem in recovering your money. Many people, even after losing in court and being ordered to pay another person some money, still do not pay.

Answer From the Defendant(s)

Once a Complaint is filed against a Defendant or Defendants, each is required to answer the Complaint, which usually means to file a form response to all of the statements or allegations in the Complaint. It is typical for the Defendant to deny everything at this stage, since it is the Plaintiff’s burden of proof to prove each statement in his/her Complaint.

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