What to Expect as a Poor Person in a Rich Man’s Game

Real Words about the Law and Being Sued for Debt

What to Expect as a Poor Person in a Rich Man’s Game

You may have heard that “justice is blind,” which oddly enough was meant to suggest that justice is fair in America – it’s blind to class and race, and all the rest, supposedly. But if you’re being sued for debt you’ve probably heard of another saying: “it’s a big club, but you aren’t in it.”

I’m afraid that second saying is probably more relevant to what you can expect in the courts. If you’re going it pro se, that is to say representing yourself, you’re going to have some trouble getting the
attention of most judges. They’re not going to value what you say as much as they’d value what a lawyer would say, especially a lawyer for a corporation. Most judges are on that side of the fence, and they’re DEFINITELY from that side of the tracks, if you know what I mean.

So let’s just say there’s an institutional bias  – prejudice – against you. But I am saying “most” judges, after all, and some don’t share that bias.

And as a general rule judges do have a sense of fair play as far as playing by the rules, although again this is just a “general rule.” If they care about the outcome of a case, I’d say they can be pretty results driven, never minding the rules, but in fact most of them do NOT care about the outcome of debt cases. On the whole they seem not to like them, and we’ve all heard that debt collectors are notoriously heartless and… dirty. The judges are aware of all this, and I think they do regard them, on the whole, as the vultures of the legal kingdom. Judges often come from the more high profile sort of law.

But these are generalizations, and you should observe for yourself what your judge is like.

And here’s yet another general rule of the courts: the judges regard cases involving less than a couple
of million dollars as being sort of trifling and not worth their time. That’s a thing you should never forget. It’s a question of who they blame for your case wasting their time. I think they start with the sense that YOU are to blame, if you bother defending yourself, but this can change, and we want it to change. You didn’t bring the suit, after all, but you are one of the few meaningfully opposing the debt collectors, and so the judges might blame you for that. It has often seemed that way to me, anyway.

This is all hardly a ringing endorsement of the process, I know, but probably nothing new to you, either.
So why do I still think you have an excellent chance of winning if you fight these cases? Because the debt collectors really don’t usually have what they need to prove the things they need under the rules, and courts do have respect for rules. They’ll forgive corporate counsel a few transgressions, but in the final analysis they want the rules to be followed, and the case can be reversed on appeal if they don’t. So you have your chance.

And judges are people. The more time you spend with them, providing you keep your goals in mind, the more the judges will like you, the more they’ll listen to what you have to say. And you will have the law on your side. That does matter. It usually makes all the difference if you know what you’re doing.

And that’s why we’re here – to make sure you do know what you’re doing. Just be aware that whatever
they say about cutting a break for non-lawyers in the justice system – and they do in certain unimportant ways – you’re probably going to be held to a higher standard than the lawyer representing the debt collector rather than a lower one. You’re going to have to know more and do a better job than the other side.

You can do that, it just takes work and a certain humility. The lawyers on the other side are not the greatest legal minds. The debt collection business draws business people, and the business they’re in
means they won’t spend a lot of time on your case. They won’t have a lot of the stuff they need or the
time to get it. Your job is to show that to the judge in a way he or she will listen to. It’s a challenge, but it can usually be done. We’ll be helping you.

The lawyers for the other side have a job to do, and that’s to beat you. Some of them will treat you with respect, and others with contempt (which will be controlled), but remember their job, and however they present themselves to you it will be part of their overall plan to beat you. Don’t expect to go out with them for drinks after it’s all over.

 

Motion to Compel Cycle

The “Motion to Compel Cycle”

– What to do when the Company Suing You Won’t Answer Discovery

If you’re being sued for debt and following our system, you will serve “discovery” on the other side. That is, you will send them questions to answer called “interrogatories,” requests for documents, and requests that they admit certain things.

We do this because debt buyers usually don’t have the proof they need to establish their case, and even original creditors often don’t. We need to know exactly what they do have so we can prepare to show that it isn’t legitimate evidence. That will be important in resisting any motions they file, in filing our own motions, and preparing for and winning at trial.

You will send discovery, and no matter what you send, you will receive nothing but objections in response. This is called “stone-walling,” and it’s in every debt collector’s playbook. Do NOT just send another set of questions – it doesn’t matter what you ask, they will always object, so that would be useless. They might be stonewalling because they know they don’t have legitimate evidence, but frankly I think it’s mostly just a strategy to convince you to give up – to make you think you don’t have a chance against their lawyers and their money.

Don’t give up. Make them give you your answers.

To do that, you’re going to have to do the things that allow you to file a motion to compel, and then you will, obviously, have to file the motion, too. This whole process is what I call the Motion to Compel Cycle. So what is that?

Look at your rules of civil procedure for the rule on motions to compel. READ THAT RULE!

You will notice, in every jurisdiction I’ve ever seen, that the rule requires you to negotiate “informally” in good faith to resolve the issues raised by the other side’s objections. That is going to require you to call them up on the phone, speak to the lawyer on the other side, and discuss the objections. You will do this in good faith, but they certainly will not. And when you get through with this conversation, you will send them first a confirming letter if they’ve agreed to anything, and secondly what’s called a “good faith letter,” which outlines the items remaining in contention and states your basis for demanding the evidence.

So it goes like this:

Send discovery and wait for response

Call them to discuss objections

Write good faith letter outlining disputes and giving them a certain time to provide the information you demand

Wait for that time to expire

Write and file motion to compel.

It is possible they will respond with an argument. You should reply to that argument, but remember never to make any admissions of owing them or anyone money, of any prior relationship to the creditor, etc. NO ADMISSIONS AT ALL EVER. This is critical because they may slip a question in asking “don’t you owe __ the money?” or “don’t you already have the records? It was your credit card account!”

The only issue you should discuss is whether and why they owe you the discovery. Don’t forget.

This whole process is tedious and annoying because you know they are not in good faith. However, remember this: your efforts are requiring more attorney time spent on your case than many other cases combined would require. You are drawing blood with every minute you make them spend. And it’s the only way you will get what you need.

Remember in your first phone call to ask about EVERY SINGLE OBJECTION. I know there are dozens. Go through each one. It’s your right and responsibility, and it costs them $250/hour to talk with you.

Write a “confirming letter” if they make any concessions at all. Say “you said you would give me __ by [date]” and mention everything they agreed to. If they said they didn’t have anything responsive to a question or request, confirm that in the same way, too. You must create a written record.

You won’t get much, so you have to take the next step, the good faith letter where you say why you’re entitled to the information you request. If you’re using our model discovery, you’ll know what to say here.

They won’t give you anything even after this, in all probability, so your next step is the motion to compel. In that, you will include a statement about the phone calls you attempted, and you’ll attach your good faith letter. The court won’t hear your motion otherwise.

We have materials that could help you with all of the motion to compel cycle, from phone call to hearing.

 

 

Overview of Debt Litigation

The new 20:20 project –

New Year, New Kind of Membership

There are three videos in this series. Together, they describe the debt litigation process and almost everything you will encounter as you go through it. We have products for every situation, but these videos are more about the process than our products. Below the videos you will see more about a new product that brings all of our other materials together. If you prefer what we have previously offered, those things will still be available.

Part One

The debt and debt litigation industry.

Part 2

Debt Defense and why it can be so difficult

Part 3

Why Pro se works and how you can do it.

Here is the 20-20 Membership

We are introducing two new types of membership, the 20-20 and 20-20 plus. Right now, the difference is just how long they last, but it is likely that there will be some special content or materials for 2020+ before too long.

If you have watched the videos above, you know why we’re offering these products and why I think they’re a great deal. I will outline the new memberships briefly below.

First and mainly, the 20-20 membership will be a “pay-once” program. For a flat price you will receive all membership benefits for 12 months. This should get you all the way through to the end of any litigation you are involved in now. You won’t buy anything else from us or be charged again. Here’s what the 20-20 membership includes:

Teleconferences – currently we have them twice per week. Depending on need, that number could increase so that people regularly have an opportunity to ask questions in real time.

Access to member-only materials, including what used to be called the document bank. This gives you access to materials that have been created for a variety of different real-life situations as well as a large number of articles addressing the situations most debt litigants encounter. In other words, the 20-20 is a full membership, and you get everything members ever get.

Free access to all of our products. You won’t have to buy anything anymore. If you need a motion to compel pack, for example, you can download it for free. And that’s true of all of our materials that are currently for sale.

Specifically, that includes the Debt Defense Litigation Manual, the Three Weaknesses Almost every Debt Collector Has and how to Use them, materials on assignment contracts (not yet, but soon, a product), the Legal Research and Analysis report, and much more.

You can check the prices, but you’ll find that, added up, these materials and benefits would cost at least $1,000, so this is by far the lowest price we’ve ever offered. The 20-20 (regular) will cost $250 for 12 months, and the 20-20+ will cost $300 for 18 months. This membership should be available for sale as soon as December 27, and the prices will stay good through February 15.

Click here for a more detailed description and comparison of these new memberships to the other memberships.

What Makes Something “Evidence” in Debt Cases?

What Makes Something Evidence

For a free copy of this article in PDF format, click here: what makes it evidence

This article is a brief but important discussion about “evidence,” what it is, how it works, and what to do about it. I get a lot of questions about “striking” documents at various times in a lawsuit, so this may help with that, too. While this article is intended to be a stand-alone article, it is also a part of our Glossary of Legal Terms, where we explain legal concepts and language to non-lawyers. Please feel free to use that resource if you run into a legal term you don’t understand.

But in this article we discuss something that most people understand a little bit about.

What is Evidence?

In a way, evidence is just “stuff.” It’s stuff that is supposed to relate to a case, so let’s start by introducing the concept of “relevance,” which is the formal way in which material relates to a case.

Relevance

Something is “relevant” if it makes some fact that matters to your case (is “material” to your case, in legalese) somewhat more or less likely to be considered true. A bank statement, for example, might be relevant to show how much you owe, or that it is your account.

It doesn’t have to “prove” it. Just make it more or less likely, and of course some evidence is much, much more convincing than other things might be. In debt law, the “credibility” of evidence actually rarely matters because what the debt collectors typically use are credit card statements and other things like that. For some reason the courts almost always believe them, despite all the stories of how often they’re wrong.

In any event, this video will presume that the “evidence” of which we are speaking is relevant. But you should never just do that. Always consider the question of relevance as one of the important first questions. Does it impact on something the debt collector must prove to establish its case? Anything else is not relevant and should be objected to on that basis.

How is Evidence Used

So what turns this relevant stuff into “evidence?”

The “stuff” becomes “evidence” when you ask the court to consider it for some specific purpose. That is deceptively simple, and you might think it doesn’t mean anything. But it means a lot, actually. It means that when a debt collector attaches statements or affidavits to its petition, it is NOT evidence, unless the petition is a “verified petition” where somebody is swearing that the allegations, and the evidence attached are true. Those are quite rare, but if you have one, you will have to verify your answer as well. So in that situation the stuff is a lot like evidence.

However, we need not consider that further because in almost all debt cases, there isn’t a verified petition, and the documents attached are NOT evidence in any present sense.

This in turn suggests that a motion to strike the attachments is pointless, and you should also be aware that the plaintiff is not trying to prove its case – so a motion to dismiss for lack of evidence is also pointless at that stage.

Stuff generally becomes “evidence” at two times in a case.

  • On an “evidentiary motion.”
  • And at trial.

An evidentiary motion is a motion that calls for some sort of proof. Most typically, that would be a motion for summary judgment, but a motion to dismiss for failure to serve would also involve proof of that failure. Likewise, motions to compel require that you show the court certain facts, and motions for sanctions can involve much more involved fact finding.

And a motion to vacate is also going to require some very specific evidence.

But in most of these situations you’re simply presenting evidence to show a rational person could believe something – you’re not asking the court actually to believe it. In motions for summary judgment you’re asking the court to find, decisively, that certain facts are established beyond dispute, and at trial you’re asking the fact finder to believe you and not the other person.

Evidence is always Evidence of Something

In any event, we now have stuff that has become evidence. It’s always evidence of SOMETHING. Right?
It’s supposed to show some specific, important thing is true or not true. And of course evidence could show more than one thing is true or not true, which is important.

Evidence is always evidence of some fact or facts, in other words. You don’t move to “strike” it. You OBJECT to it when the other side tries to get the court to consider it. You object to its being used to prove some specific fact (but maybe not some other fact).

Admissibility

Before the court can consider the evidence, it first must decide whether it is “admissible”  (It has to decide whether it can consider it.)

We talk a lot about admissibility in other materials, because most debt cases are decided based on
whether evidence – usually affidavits and bank statements – is admissible. Your objection to evidence is to its admissibility. In other words, you are asking the court not to consider the evidence at all. At a jury trial, it’s important to do this before the evidence is seen by the jury, so you object to the question asked (rather than the answer given) if possible, or you object when the other side asks to show it to the jury.

Remember that it is possible to have evidence admitted for one thing but not another thing. Suppose you’re claiming, for example, that you sent a request for verification, but they never verified before suing you. Your copy of the letter would be proof of what the request said. Your testimony that you sent the letter would be proof that you sent it, but you would ALSO need some proof that they received it. Hence it makes sense to send them by certified mail.

The letter itself is admissible about the contents of the request but not the receipt.

Normal people are not used to breaking things down in this way, and this turning of everything into an elaborate flow-chart takes some getting used to. But you need to think that way both to get your own evidence admitted, and also – more importantly in debt cases – to attack the debt collector’s evidence.

Remember that if the debt collector manages to get credit card statements admitted into evidence that will almost always be fatal to your defense.

Your Legal Leg Up

Your Legal Leg Up is dedicated to helping people defend themselves from debt lawsuits without having to hire a lawyer. Lawsuits have a number of points where specific action is called or, and we have products to help you deal with most of these situations. We also have memberships that give you access to more materials and better training, and also provide a regular opportunity to ask questions and get answers in real-time. You can use this time to find out what the debt collectors are trying to do and what you might do in response, and you can get guidance on the issues that matter and how to think about and address them.

In addition to that, our website is a resource for all. Many of the articles and materials are reserved for members, but many others are available to everyone. Every page has a site search button in both the header and footer. Put in a key word – a word you think relates to what you’re looking for – and enter. You will get a page of results.

Products Related to this Article

Because this is a general article, there are not any products specifically related to this post. I do suggest asserting your rights early and often, and you might find our Take Control of your Life product helpful in that. I also suggest great care in researching and analyzing facts and law. You might find our Guide to Legal Research and Analysis product helpful for that.

Beyond that, if you are facing significant debt problems, I’d suggest our memberships.

Memberships

Members get discounts on all products as well as unlimited opportunities to join our regularly scheduled teleconferences. This gives invaluable real-time assistance, answers to questions, help with strategies, and encouragement. You also get the Litigation Manual and the Three Weaknesses Report for free with membership. Find out about memberships by clicking the “About Memberships” link in the menu at the top of the page.

Sign Up for Free Information

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What you’ll receive if you sign up is a series of several videos and articles spread out over several days, and then you will occasionally hear from us as we add information to the site. We don’t always announce that information, though.

What you will not receive is any marketing from other people – or much from us, either. Our goal is to make the site more useful to members and visitors, not to swamp anyone with sales materials. The information we send will have links to information or products that we think may be helpful.

Voidable Judgments – the Other Kind of Motion to Vacate

Voidable Judgments – the Other Kind of Motion to Vacate

For a free copy of this article in PDF form, click here: the other kind of motion to vacate

Most of the time when people talk about motions to vacate they’re talking about motions to vacate a default that occurred as a result of failure to respond to a properly served lawsuit. There is another kind of motion to vacate, though, for people where the court did not have proper jurisdiction. If that’s your situation, this is a better way.

A Quick Review

Once a lawsuit is properly served on a defendant, the court has “jurisdiction” (the power to address the claims made in the suit) at least provisionally. If a defendant fails to respond appropriately to such a suit, the plaintiff will probably get a default order and judgment. That is what happens in a large majority of debt cases.

An “appropriate” response that will prevent a default judgment is either:

  • An Answer, or
  • a motion to dismiss the suit.

It is also possible to file a motion “for more definite statement” in some states, as well. The point is, though, that every allegation in the petition must either be moved against or answered. If that happens, a default judgment should never be issued.

If you fail to answer and the court awards a default judgment, you can ask the court to give you another chance by asking it to “vacate” the default and allow you to defend the case. I discuss what this is, what the time limits are, and how to do it in several articles, see, e.g.,  Overcoming Default Judgments.

Voidable Judgments

But what if the court does NOT have or get proper jurisdiction over you?

This can happen in two common ways: the debt collector does not manage to serve you properly; or the debt collector sues you in a court that doesn’t have power over you (because you live somewhere else). Other ways are possible, but these are by far the most common.

If you find out that you are being sued in a court that lacks jurisdiction before judgment, you can move to dismiss the case on that basis, but that can defeat the whole purpose of the rule – since in order to do so you would have to appear (“specially”) in the court to do it, and if you’re far away, that’s impractical. Another way to handle the situation is to let the court rule and then attack the judgment in the correct court. That also has significant drawbacks, so if you know about the situation before judgment, it can present a tough question.

But most people do not learn about suits where the courts lack jurisdiction before judgment.  They find out about them later. What do you do if that happens?

No Authority, No Judgment

The good news is that there is NO time limit on a voidable judgment. The court never had authority to enter the judgment, and “all” you have to do is establish that fact. You can do that at any time, and it completely undoes the judgment. It is called “void ab initio,” meaning “from the beginning” as if it never existed.

Burden of Proof

The bad news is that you can have a high burden of proving that the court did not have authority over you. Most courts require you to present “clear and convincing” evidence of the facts that you were not subject to the court’s jurisdiction. In the case of residency – you were living in California but sued in Florida, that isn’t necessarily so hard.

In the case of sewer service – where you weren’t served, but the process server swore you were, it can be much more of a challenge. Still, almost everybody I’ve known who tried it succeeded. That’s because the process servers normally describe the person to whom they theoretically gave the petition, and they usually won’t know your age or body shape, and often guess incorrectly your gender and race. If their affidavit says they served a woman 5’2” eyes of blue and you’re obviously not that, you’re good. Other things obviously aren’t as easy to prove.

What you Have to Prove

You have to prove by good evidence that the court lacked jurisdiction over you.

What you Do Not Have to Prove

You won’t have to prove you made any mistake (you didn’t) or that the substance of the judgment (i.e., you owe $2,000) was wrong in any way. You do not need to allege or prove any “defense” to the suit, in other words. Attack the jurisdiction, and the case goes away.

What you Should Not Have to Prove

You shouldn’t have to prove you didn’t receive notice of a sewer service filing. Suppose, for example, you found it in the trash in a nearby dumpster. Most courts require proper service and not “notice” of the suit. But I’m afraid you can’t count on the courts to apply that rule consistently. You will not want to offer proof or any indication that you heard about the case in any way prior to judgment. If you became alerted to the fact that a process server was around and do some research in the court files, you will want to disguise the fact and cover your trail.

Special State Rules

The rules for this sort of motion to vacate are NOT the easily found rules in the rules of civil procedure. You must research your state’s rules for voidable judgments and follow whatever rules you find there.

Products Related to this Article

We do not have a product directly related to this article if you are moving to void a judgment. You may find our Motion to Vacate Pack helpful in showing you the form of motions and proof, but it does not contemplate the rules you would need to follow. I emphasize, again, that in filing a motion to void a judgment entered without jurisdiction, you would not want or need to include a “proposed Answer,” and you would not need to allege a defense (although claiming a defense wouldn’t hurt and might help).

You would probably find our memberships useful, particularly if the situation with the debt collector that brought you here is not the only one you’re facing.

Memberships

Members get discounts on all products as well as unlimited opportunities to join our regularly scheduled teleconferences. This gives invaluable real-time assistance, answers to questions, help with strategies, and encouragement. You also get the Litigation Manual and the Three Weaknesses Report for free with membership. Find out about memberships by clicking the “About Memberships” link in the menu at the top of the page.

 

Sign Up for Free Information

You can sign up to receive information from us by clicking on this link and following the instructions: https://yourlegallegup.com/blog/sign-up-for-free-information/

What you’ll receive if you sign up is a series of several videos and articles spread out over several days, and then you will occasionally hear from us as we add information to the site. We don’t always announce that information, though.

What you will not receive is any marketing from other people – or much from us, either. Our goal is to make the site more useful to members and visitors, not to swamp anyone with sales materials. The information we send will have links to information or products that we think may be helpful.

The Best Defense is a Good Offense

Debt Law and Motions for Summary Judgment

Get a copy of this article in PDF format: Sometimes the Best Defense is a Good Offense article

If you’re being sued for debt, your case is going to head for a show-down on a couple of main issues. These will probably involve some billing records or some record-keepers wanting to testify. And these are primarily “legal” issues – that is, the facts may be clear and undisputed, and the judge might be able to make the important decisions in the case. When a judge does that by motion and before trial, it’s called a “summary judgment,” and the parties ask for that by filing a “motion for summary judgment.” You will want to consider trying this.

Before we get deeply into motions for summary judgment, let’s discuss the way cases develop, go away, or are decided. It’s really just one process after the case is filed and you’ve answered.

The Way Debt Cases Develop

First, the parties conduct discovery which aims to find out what facts are, indeed, uncontested, which ones are disputed, and what evidence there is in support of them. What this really means is, discovery looks for what you can prove about your case or their case. In debt law, you either want to prove it was all a horrible mistake (if that’s what’s going on) or that the debt collector cannot prove its case. Since most debt cases come from what were at one time legitimate debts, most debt defense boils down to an attack on the debt collector’s case. And you will have an excellent chance of winning.

In your discovery, you will probe for what evidence they have and how they plan to get it “into evidence,” i.e., into the court’s consideration at trial. (Incidentally, our Discovery Pack is designed to help you do this.)

As facts emerge, and as work happens and becomes necessary, the debt collector might decide to drop the case. In fact that often happens, and of course it often doesn’t, too. Sometimes the debt collector will try to shorten things up by motion for summary judgment, but more usually they just want to get to trial as quickly as possible. If they do either one of these things before you have conducted your discovery, there’s a good chance you will be snowed under. Thus you should do your discovery quickly.

You want to aim for the motion for summary judgment right from the time you file your answer. If it doesn’t work, well, you’re halfway to being ready for trial anyway, and you will have started talking to the judge about the issues that matter.

Now to talk more specifically about motions for summary judgment.

Motions for Summary Judgment

A “motion” is just the formal way you ask the court to issue a ruling of some sort. A motion for summary judgment is asking the court to find that all the necessary facts for a ruling in your favor have been established, and to grant you a judgment as to them. It’s possible to get a summary judgment about some parts of a case but not others (a “partial summary judgment” in legalese).  To end the case, you have to get a judgment on all of the claims.

What to Do

If you are being sued, you need to begin with the ending in mind. That is, right from the beginning you should think long and hard about what it takes to win your case. In debt law, the first big challenge most defendants face is to answer the petition – just to take that first step in defending yourself. If you’ve managed that, congratulations. Just by doing that you’ve given yourself a better chance to win than approximately 90% of the other people being sued. And in some cases, to be sure, that’s all you need – the debt collector may walk away right now. But in most cases they won’t.

So your next specific step is to start discovery – the sooner the better. And you should start discovery with the firm goal of finding and proving the things you need to win. We have a product that can help with that, but this video is about the next step following discovery: the motion for summary judgment.

In a way, it’s simple, although this is one time you should never confuse “simple” with “easy.” If they’re alleging a breach of contract, for example, you will discover that they must prove the existence of a valid contract, its breach (failure to pay as agreed), and damages. The burden of proof is on the debt collector as to each of these things, and they have to show it using admissible evidence.

In your discovery, you should have narrowed down exactly what they have to offer as proof. In the case of a debt collector this is usually documents created by some other person, usually the original creditor. And they may have documents or testimony by some of their own employees as well. This material is generally intended to try either to fool the court into believing the other evidence is admissible, or to pull it within the rules of evidence.

Your job will be to look at each bit of evidence and show why it cannot do what the debt collectors want it to do.

Filing a Motion for Summary Judgment

Of course this isn’t very easy, and there are significant procedural requirements, but going through this process increases your chances of winning dramatically in three important ways. First, if you can show your right to a summary judgment, you should win the motion and get the case kicked out. Before that happens, though, you will be putting the plaintiff to the expense and effort of responding, and if they think they will lose (and often even if they think they will win), they’d rather just drop the case than keep going. And finally, even if the court does not rule, or rules against you, you will have learned a tremendous amount about the law and begun the process of teaching the judge what he or she needs to know, improving your chances of winning at trial a lot.

There’s every reason to do it. You just need the energy and courage to try. We can help.

Product Information

Because much of this article involves taking action and creating legal document, we include an addendum of the products we have that can help. First, if you are at the beginning stages of your case and needing to answer (or otherwise respond to) the petition, our First Response Kit is designed to help with that. If you have already answered and need to start (or restart) conducting discovery, our Discovery Pack will help. The Discovery Pack is included within the First Response Kit, so don’t get both. If you are trying to force the debt collector to respond to your discovery, you may want our Motion to Compel Pack.

If they’re filing a motion for summary judgment and you are not ready to file a motion for summary judgment yourself, our Motion for Summary Judgment Defense Pack could help. But if you want to respond to theirs and file one of your own, you will want our Cross-Motion  for Summary Judgment Pack. And if they haven’t file a motion for summary judgment but you want to, that would be our Motion for Summary Judgment Offense Pack. Don’t get more than one of the MSJ packs.

Memberships

Members get discounts on all products as well as unlimited opportunities to join our regularly scheduled teleconferences. This gives invaluable real-time assistance, answers to questions, help with strategies, and encouragement. You also get the Litigation Manual for free with membership. Find out about memberships by clicking the “About Memberships” link in the menu at the top of the page.

Sign Up for More Information

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If you sign up, you will receive a series of videos and articles over the next few days designed to help you get a grip on debt litigation. Then we will occasionally send you information on new materials we have added to the site. This is rarely products and almost always new publicly available articles. You will not receive sales messages regarding other products, nor will we sell your information to any third party.

Motions in Limine – to Exclude Evidence

What Pro Se Debt Defendants Need to Know about Motions in Limine

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In this article we discuss a sort of motion that we think pro se parties underuse – motions in limine to exclude evidence at trial. They give you a chance to explain how the rule against hearsay prevents documents created out of court from being used as evidence unless there’s an exception. And they give you a chance to show how the plaintiff’s evidence does not meet the exception it’s planning to invoke, the business records exception. On a motion in limine, you can make your arguments before the trial begins, when things are likely to be overlooked in the heat and action of the trial.

What are Motions in Limine?

Motions in Limine are motions filed before trial. “Limine” is Latin for “threshold,” so these motions are usually brought right before trial, when it’s pretty clear what the other side plans to do.

They are usually directed at evidence, but they could also be directed at legal theories or arguments.

Why Use Them?

Like other parts of litigation, they are directed at the legal merits of the case but could have their most powerful impact on negotiations. Thus you bring your motion and attempt to win it for legal reasons, but if you do manage to win it, you will be able to keep the debt collector from putting on the most important parts of its evidence. And if that happens, it may give up without your needing to go to the trial at all.

Thus motions in limine can be very significant turning points. Or they can simplify matters for you at trial if that happens.

There’s another reason for pro se parties to use motions in limine. As a pro se party in a system run by lawyers and judges, it can be hard to get listened to. Judges may or may not mean to pay more attention to lawyers, but they themselves WERE lawyers, their friends are lawyers, and lawyers are the ones they see day in and day out.

They naturally pay more attention to them for just those reasons.

And then there’s the fact that lawyers understand the system and are trained in it. They can do dumb things, of course, but usually they don’t. Judges know that, and they know that pro se parties lack this training, so they naturally take what you say with a grain of salt.

And then there’s the fact that trials move very quickly, and the judge will be watching the clock very carefully. Will everything you say get heard? Not at trial.

You have a much better chance to get heard at a hearing on a motion to exclude. That will give you a chance to make an impression on the judge, explain some of the legal concepts behind the case, and make your arguments regarding evidence at a time when the court is freer to give what you say some thought. And it helps the judge get to know you a little bit and to be reminded of certain rules of evidence.

All of these things are absolutely vital to your chances of success.

What Motions in Limine are NOT

Motions in limine are not motions for summary judgment. That is, you could argue in a motion in limine that the other side should not be able to introduce certain evidence or make certain arguments, but a motion in limine is not the place to ask for a ruling on the entire case in your favor. For that you need a motion for summary judgment, and this comes much earlier in the process.

What Happens after a Motion in Limine?

What you’re hoping for is a ruling on the spot that the debt collector will not be able to use certain evidence or arguments, and that does happen sometimes. More often, perhaps, the court will withhold its ruling until the debt collector tries to use the evidence. The theory behind this is that the court wants to judge from the context of the case whether the evidence is necessary and fair.

In reality, courts should not wait on most of the issues you’re likely to move on. That’s because your arguments will likely be addressed to the legal admissibility and sufficiency of the evidence, and no amount of case context can substitute for presenting the necessary bases for the business records exception, for example. But courts can be reluctant to rule on a motion that destroys one party’s chances of winning before trial.

Timing

While you could bring a motion in limine fairly early in a case, the court will likely not rule on it before the eve of trial. And either the court will order, or your local rules may provide, a date before which motions in limine must be brought.

In other words, there’s going to be a deadline for filing your motion. You need to know that deadline and abide by it. Most typically what happens is the court wants lists of witnesses and exhibits a week or two before trial, followed by a (final) pretrial conference. You would write your motions in limine in time to be heard at that final pretrial conference.

Work on Motion in Limine

In a debt case everything about their case is predictable, even if you don’t know for sure what they’ve got.

Where the person suing you is a debt collector, you know that the debt collector’s case depends on getting some bills that it did not create into evidence. You should know (from discovery) exactly what those bills are and where they came from long before trial. And you also need to know how they plan to get them into evidence. You find these things out through the discovery process.

Rulings on Motions in Limine are not Permanent

Rulings on motions in limine are subject to change. The court could grant your motion before trial and then change its mind, or vice-versa. That means you will still need to object at trial – or be prepared to argue even if you won – in order to protect your rights. And if you lost, you should take another shot at it. Don’t be intimidated – the court will tell you if it is willing to hear your arguments or not.

What makes motions in limine useful is that they give you a chance to make your arguments in the cool light of reason rather than the heat of trial. That might be your best chance to get heard for the pro se.

For Help

You can find help on this site by just looking around, or by doing a site search using the search bar in the header or footer of every page, and of course we have many products that will simplify whatever you’re trying to do in debt defense. You can find those in the products and membership pages. Sign up here for free information.

Should I Buy Your Motion for Summary Judgment Pack?

When Do you Need the Motion for Summary Judgment Pack?

If the other side has filed a motion for summary judgment against you and you want to defend only, you should get the Motion for Summary Judgment Defense Pack.

If the other side has filed a motion for summary judgment against you, and you want to defend and also file a motion for summary judgment against them on the same case, you should get the Motion for Summary Judgment Omni Pack.

And if you either want to file a motion for summary judgment against them (without their having filed one against you) you should get the Motion for Summary Judgment (Offense) Pack.

What is a Motion for Summary Judgment?

A motion for summary judgment is an “evidentiary” motion. That is, unlike a motion to dismiss, a motion for summary judgment seeks to determine a set of facts that are “uncontested” or not in dispute and asks the court to rule on how the law applies to them. What makes a judgment “summary” is that it is decided without a trial. A “motion” is the request to the court to issue the judgment.

Either party can file a motion for summary judgment. If the other side files one first, you put your response to theirs, and your own motion together and call it a “cross-motion.” Thus “cross-motion” really only refers to timing. Substantively, you will either be filing a motion for summary judgment against them, defending against their motion for summary judgment, or both.

Establish “Uncontested” Facts

Because disputes in the evidence are supposed to be resolved at trial, motions for summary judgment are supposed to be determined based only on “uncontested” facts. But “uncontested” and “facts” are terms of art, as you will see in the materials.  A fact is not established because you say it is so in the motion. A fact can only be established by evidence properly presented to the court. Likewise, a fact is not “contested” simply because you don’t like it or you say it isn’t so – it’s only contested by the admission of evidence that shows it isn’t so.

Illustration

Let’s make up an example to clarify how these things work. Suppose the debt collector is filing a motion for summary judgment that says you owe $1,000 on an old credit card. They put in an old statement showing you supposedly owe the money and an affidavit by one of their robo-signers that says the statement is “accurate” and that you haven’t paid the bill.

Their Case

That is pretty much exactly what the debt collectors do every time. Their evidence that you owe and haven’t paid is the credit card statement and the affidavit. They’ll say it’s “uncontested,” so what do you do?

Your Defense

You will object to the affidavit and credit card statement for legally powerful reasons (as shown by the summary judgment pack) and you will, if you can, add an affidavit of your own that says, roughly, “I don’t owe them, never owed them, didn’t get a statement, and never had an account with the bank they say this came from.”

Your effective objection SHOULD be enough, because it is up to them to present actual, admissible, evidence in support of their “uncontested facts.” But if you can add an affidavit of your own, the effect is much more powerful. Then you are both attacking their evidence and introducing contradictory evidence of your own.

Warning

Merely claiming in the Response to their Motion that you don’t owe the money would not keep their evidence from being “uncontested.” Understand? You must present evidence and attack the validity of their evidence.

Cross-Motions for Summary Judgment

Now (because of the nature of debt cases), if they can’t win a motion for summary judgment against you, you should almost always be able to win a cross-motion for summary judgment against them. That is, they have the burden of proof on their claim. If they can carry that burden, they will win the case. If they can’t, then they should lose (the whole case) – if you show it and file a cross-motion. Therefore, if they file a motion for summary judgment against you, you will almost always want to get the “Omni” MSJ pack. Filing a cross-motion does involve significantly more work, but if you can do so you might save yourself a lot of trouble later.

Your Motion for Summary Judgment

Suppose they don’t file a motion for summary judgment, but you have gone through discovery and found that the only things they have in support of their claims are an affidavit and the old statement used in the above example? As a matter of fact, that is typical. In that case you should consider filing your own Motion for Summary Judgment.

Motions for summary judgment require significant effort and require you to find out and follow various procedures rigorously.

So they are work.

Why You Should Do It

But if you win, you can cut short the process of the lawsuit and avoid trial. And even if you lose your motion for summary judgment you will be educating the judge to the issues and changing the way the judge and other side look at you. Therefore, we suggest you do it – if you have time after finding out through the discovery process that they don’t have what they need.

At a minimum, working your way through a motion for summary judgment will sharpen you tremendously on the law and facts of the case, and it will very likely result in winning one way or the other. Thus we recommend it if you can do it.

Motions for summary judgment are designed for situations where you can show certain decisive facts.

The Motion for Summary Judgment Pack is NOT…

The MSJ pack is not another way to get what you need to defend the lawsuit. It is material aimed at a specific procedural motion and moment in time. Defending yourself requires a commitment to a process. It could include motions to dismiss, answering the petition, filing a counterclaim, conducting discovery, moving to compel discovery, and various pretrial maneuvers. It rarely requires all of these things, but our Litigation Membership is what you need to prepare for the fight.

We would suggest that you might not ever need the motion for summary judgment pack, but even if you do need that, you will also want the litigation membership. The membership is the glue that holds all the parts of the lawsuit together.

Should I Buy Your Motion to Dismiss Pack?

Short Answer: Only if you need to file a motion to dismiss.

Long Answer – As follows:

When Should One Purchase our Motion to Dismiss Pack?

A lot of people buy our Motion to Dismiss Pack on the theory that they want the case against them to go away. It isn’t as simple as that. The motion to dismiss pack is applicable to situations where (1) you have filed a counterclaim and the debt collector moves to dismiss it, or (2) you have some legal basis for arguing that even if everything the petition against you is considered true the debt collector does not have a right to collect from you.

The first of these possibilities – that you are defending against a motion to dismiss – is obvious. If they want to dismiss, you will probably want to defend against that. Your motion to dismiss their claim is more of the question.

Purpose of Motion to Dismiss

A motion to dismiss is a way to “test the adequacy of the petition.” It is NOT a way to test whether the debt collector has evidence to support its lawsuit. Motions to dismiss are therefore appropriate, most generally, when you have a challenge to the company’s right to sue you in a specific court or in general, or when you have a challenge to the court’s power over you. There are also what are known as “equitable” considerations we will discuss.

The Debt Collector’s Right to Sue You

The main way this comes up is in jurisdictions where they have passed regulations on debt collectors which the collector has not followed. Most typically this is an issue of registering or not. Several states require debt collectors to register in some way before pursuing debt – and debt collectors often ignore those regulations. If yours did, a motion to dismiss on that basis would be a good idea.

Another way the right to sue you comes up – much less frequently – is that the petition fails to allege ownership of the debt. This could happen, for example, where ABC Collectors are suing you on a Citibank credit card. If they allege in the petition that they bought the debt, then you will want to find out what evidence they have, but this is part of the suit and not a motion to dismiss. If they fail to allege why you’re supposed to owe them on a debt apparently owing to Citibank, a motion to dismiss is probably in order.

The Court’s Right to Hear the Case

You may want to challenge the court’s power to hear the case against you. This arises in two ways. First, the suit could be brought somewhere other than the jurisdiction in which you live. You live in X county, and they bring suit in Y county and you never lived there. That would likely deprive the court of jurisdiction over you and constitute a violation of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.

The other, more common, reason for this sort of motion to dismiss has to do with service. Were you served correctly? And this question can be rather complicated. For present purposes, we merely say that a motion to dismiss is the appropriate way to challenge the court’s power over you, and this is a motion you would want to file before taking any other action in the suit. If you think you were not served properly, in other words, you will probably want to file a motion to dismiss.

“Equitable” Circumstances

There are certain gray areas that might be appropriate for a motion to dismiss, and these are called “equitable” considerations.

“Equity” is a historical reference to the way courts used to be in England, but for our purposes they refer to something more like moral rightness. If the debt collector waited too long to bring suit, if it did something to prevent you from making payments, or if you settled the case previously and they still sued you might all be examples of equitable defenses. While they DO involve evidence beyond the pleadings (the normal boundary line for motions to dismiss), you could probably bring these things as motions to dismiss. You would also be wise to plead them as “affirmative defenses” in your answer if you file an answer

What Motions to Dismiss are NOT for

You don’t file a motion to dismiss because you aren’t satisfied with attachments to the debt collector’s petition or don’t think they have the proof. Yes, you’ll attack their case – but later, and in another way. You don’t file a motion to dismiss because you just want the case to go away. And you don’t BUY a motion to dismiss pack here as an inexpensive way to defend the case in general. Our motion to dismiss pack is a specific product aimed at a specific situation. If it doesn’t apply to your situation, you will simply want to get the Gold Debt Litigation Membership and start doing the things you need to do to win the case.

Motions in Limine

Motions in Limine are pre-trial motions that serve a specific purpose. That is, they are motions designed to preview issues regarding whether certain evidence will be allowed (“admissible”) for the trial and under what circumstances it would or will be admitted. Typically, a court’s final pretrial order will set the time limit and schedule for motions in limine, but even if it doesn’t, you may want to file one.

Remember, they are filed in contemplation of trial – they are not a motion to file in some more general sense. If there is a motion for summary judgment, for example, you don’t file a motion in limine – you oppose the motion and object to the evidence in that motion. You would make all the same arguments, perhaps, but in a different context.

Remember that a court may, or may not, rule on a motion in limine before trial. The idea is to present the objection in a systematic way under conditions that allow the judge to think about it outside of the heat of the moment. It often happens that you’ll present a motion in limine and the judge won’t rule on it because the context of the trial isn’t clear until things start happening in trial. No matter. Make your best argument in the motion and argument and be prepared for whatever the judge does. Pay close attention to what the judge thinks matters regarding whether the evidence will be admitted, and be prepared to argue at trial that those conditions haven’t happened (so the evidence shouldn’t be admitted).

Finally, remember that any ruling by the judge before trial is not necessarily binding at trial. Thus, even if you lose your motion to exclude in limine, you will want to object at trial and take another shot at it. You’d be surprised how often the judge will change his mind. And that means you also have to be prepared for the other side to do the same – and you must remember that in order to preserve your rights you probably have to make your objections again at trial. So think of the motion in limine as a sort of warm up.