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In
Pro Per
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Knowing What to Ask the Opposition
Jim
C.
I was told that I need a lawyer to write the interrogatories for
my case. I don't have the money. I was also that other guy's attorney
will jerk me around because I have no experience. I checked Bender's
Forms of Discovery for drafts to copy, but there wasn't anything
about real estate fraud or predatory lenders. Kevin
H Well, you are mostly limited to 35 questions, so what you want to do is toss out about 7, get their answers, then toss out 7 more, get more answers, and slowly tighten the noose around them, hopefully getting them to find that their only out is to contradict themselves on a later response. As far as enforcing the answers, a good law library will have books with samples of motions to compel, and/or for sanctions. Also don't forget requests for admissions and the genuineness of documents. Most of this stuff is around CCP 2030 et seq. You can ask as many questions about the genuineness of documents but only 35 admissions. You have 45 days from the date of the answer to request that admissions be admitted. You can get sample motions from the forms books, and then you can get your points and authorities in support from a series of books called "points and authorities." You can probably pull up just about any civil case file and see example motions like these. For real estate, look for cases involving title companies in your area. The clerk of the court should be able to help you look up cases by name.
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Janie I am interested in this issue too. What do you mean when you say get their answers and then throw out 7? How many times is the person allowed to send interrogatories?
Kevin responded Well,
it is somewhat like examination of a witness on the stand. You want
to ask questions that you know they will contradict later. You just can't go beyond 35 questions plus 35 admissions total, without leave of the court, which is not impossible to get. Get a book on examining witnesses. Learn how to trap them. You could work from the last set of questions to the first set (just make sure to send them in the right order). You usually know how they are going to answer. I figure you can usually catch just about anyone with five sets of seven questions. You could do 2 and 11/12ths sets of 12 also. It can be time consuming getting them back, but in state court, you can start propounding them 10 days after service of the complaint, so if you have prepared your case in advance, you can really steamroller them. The only problem is that the statutes of limitations can make it difficult to prepare the case in advance (and of course there are always variances).
Kylierules The discovery phase of a case is difficult to negotiate on your own because it all happens off the court docket, although you can look to the court for sanctions and other remedies if your attempts at discovery are ignored or sidelined. If you are serving interrogatories, you might want to consider also serving requests for admissions and a request for production of documents. The last document is probably your most valuable resource because you can ask for production of all kinds of things that go to settling financial issues, e.g., bank records, all records of earnings, etc. Don't forget, you are not limited to one set of requests.
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