Almost 6 hours spent on Friday afternoon and evening at a continued settlement conference. The case did not settle. If my client wins at trial he will recover over $215,000.00. He offered to take $175,000.00 in settlement. His three siblings countered at $50,000.00. $125K apart.
Trial is set for 3-5-2007, though there is no certainty that a courtroom will be available to try the case on that day. Trailing status is a possibility.
Families can be so stubborn and in this case a trial looks like it is inevitable. The only saving grace is that the settlement judge reviewed the case and said he thinks my client will probably win the trial.
Almost 6 hours spent on Friday afternoon and evening at a continued settlement conference. The case did not settle. If my client wins at trial he will recover over $215,000.00. He offered to take $175,000.00 in settlement. His three siblings countered at $50,000.00. $125K apart.
Trial is set for 3-5-2007, though there is no certainty that a courtroom will be available to try the case on that day. Trailing status is a possibility.
Families can be so stubborn and in this case a trial looks like it is inevitable. The only saving grace is that the settlement judge reviewed the case and said he thinks my client will probably win the trial. >>
Jeez...6 hours? We just tried a whole case in about 16 hours. Picked jury last Thurs morning, All day Friday, closed this morning, verdict in less than 1 hour of..... $300,000+ . We were offered -0- Do you at least get sanctions for winning?
Casman, sanctions are not feasible against a party who does not settle at a settlement conference (they can have their day in court). If the case actually goes to trial it will probably take 1 or 2 days. Getting to trial is a pain in SF however. The suit was filed about 20 months ago. Multiple court hearings and trips to SF across clogged bridges, rush hour traffic, parking, sitting around in court for the case to be called. It all adds up to substantial attorney time.
The saving grace is that if my client wins the partition lawsuit, he is entitled to recover his attorneys fees and court costs from the losing side. Any award of fees and costs will be recorded as a lien on the 3/4 interest in the property held by the defendants. In a case like this the only feasible way for the court to partition the property is to order the property sold to a third person and have the proceeds split. In that event my client gets his 1/4 of the sales proceeds and also gets paid his attorneys fees and costs from the 3/4 proceeds belonging to the other owners. However, he gets paid same before the other owners get paid the 3/4 in proceeds.
SanctionII, In Michigan, we call it mediation sanctions. Our case went through mediation, now called case evaluation. This process weeds out the lightweights. In order to get atty's fees not only do we have to win, but also must beat the case eval award by 10%. Thus you could potentially lose, even if you win. Best of luck with your case.....
In my case the 4 family members had fought over the property previously and entered into a settlement agreement. The agreement has the standard clause that if a breach occurs and litigation results, the winner can obtain an award of attorneys fees against the loser.
In California attorneys fees are recoverable only if a contract provides for same or a statute provides for same (there are a few exceptions to this general rule).
In my case, the breach of the settlement agreement by one defendant caused my client to file the partition lawsuit. The breaching defendant was served, did not respond and is in default. The other two defendants have filed answers and are defending the case. If I win, my client gets an award of attorneys fees against the breaching (and defaulted) defendant. Any award of fees is a money judgment which can then be placed on the breaching defendant's interest in the real property as a judgment lien. When the property is sold, the attorneys fees must be paid from the proceeds payable to the breaching defendant.
The long and short of it is that if my client wins at trial, he gets to force a sale of the property, collect his 25% of the proceeds and collect his attorneys fees and costs from the 25% of the proceeds belonging to the breaching defendant.
The long and short of it is that if my client wins at trial, he gets to force a sale of the property, collect his 25% of the proceeds and collect his attorneys fees and costs from the 25% of the proceeds belonging to the breaching defendant.
The defendant either thinks he has a strong case or is unreasonable.
Always took candy from strangers Didn't wanna get me no trade Never want to be like papa Working for the boss every night and day --"Happy", by the Rolling Stones (1972)
Tomorrow at 9:30 a.m. the case is set for a trial assignment in front of the presiding judge. Hopefully there is an open courtroom so that the PJ can assign the case to an available judge for trial. We may also be forced to spend the morning in front of a day of trial settlement comissioner as a condition precedent to the PJ assigning the case to a courtroom.
All my pretrial preparation is complete. All documents from my side that the local court rules require be filed and served on the other side 5 days before trial have been timely filed and served. The other side has filed and served nothing. I spent today doing trial prep work, including going over rules of evidence, pre trial motions in limine, reviewing and summarizing pleadings and outlining same, reviewing case law on partition of real property.
I am ready to rock and roll; and sally forth into courtroom battle. Hopefully the judge to whom the case is assigned for trial will be competent, knowledgeable, unbiased and interested in the case [instead of incompetent, stupid, biased and completely disinterested]. I also hope the trial judge is not a retired 85 year old judge who "pinch hits" a couple of times a month and while doing so falls asleep and snores on the bench [I have seen this happen].
The opposing attorney seems to be a "shoot from the hip" type of lawyer, who is light on pretrial preparation and heavy on throwing BS on the wall and hoping it sticks.
No courtrooms available today. The case is on telephone standby this week. If I get a call from the court my client and I have four hours to report to a courtroom for trial.
No courtrooms available today. The case is on telephone standby this week. If I get a call from the court my client and I have four hours to report to a courtroom for trial. >>
So what happens if the other party does not make it within the 4 hours?
If the other side does not show up within the 4 hour window, I will probably just have to sit around and wait with my client until the trial judge decides to let the case proceed to trial, by default prove up hearing, in the absence of the other side.
Got a call on 3-6-07 saying report to court on 3-7-0.7 Trial started 3-7-07, continued today [even though the courthouse fire alram went off and the building had to be evacuated for 1.5 hours, resulting in delay]. Have to go back tomorrow for a short morning session and then come back on 3-12-2007 to finish up the trial. What a load of work.
Had about a half day worth of trial this morning and am now back in the office. Going back on Monday morning to finish the presentation of evidence [one witness to go]. Since the case is a court trial, the judge is speeding things up by letting each witness be examined once by both me and the defense attorney without regarding to the rules concerning direct examination, cross examination, redirect examination and recross examination for Plaintiff's case in chief and then after Plaintiff rests, the Defendants put on their case. The judge has stated he just wants all the witnesses to testify once and present all of the evidence so that the case can go faster.
The only thing of note that took place today was that the judge called a 5 minute recess and left the courtroom. While the judge was in chambers, the defense attorney went postal on me with a profanity laced tirade directed at me in front of my client, his clients, the court reporter and the courtroom clerk. It completely came out of the blue. I told the defense attorney "nice language counsel" and he spewed even more profanity my way.
My client told me that before the recess, during my examination of one of the defendants, defense counsel got extremely agitated and nervous. His hands were shaking so bad that the paper he was holding was rustling loudly. I was oblivious to what defense counsel was doing [during trial I typically ignore opposing counsel and concentrate on the judge, the witness and my examination].
I guess I really got under the skin of the defense counsel. I actually thought it was funny seeing him go nuts since it was so unexpected and out of the blue.
During the trial he has been aggressive, yet respectful of the judge. He shoots from the hip and has been throwing lots of irrelevent documents and other evidence out hoping something would stick. After the recess, the trial resumed and during further questioning the judge got very upset at defense counsel after he disagreed with an order by the judge that by Monday the witness is required to bring to court documents evidencing his receipt of rent income and his payment of property expenses [he testified verbally about same today but had no documentary proof and the judge wants to see the documents to prove the rent income and property expenses].
In addition to shooting from the hip, defense counsel's written work product is very weak. My trial brief is about 15-18 pages and sets forth a legal analysis of the case, with citations to statutory law and case law supporting same.
The trial brief of the defense counsel is one page in length, talks briefly of the facts, contains no legal analysis and does not cite any statutory law or case law to the court. Unbelievable.
To return to the "coin" aspect of this thread ("What should I buy if I win"), I will state that after trips to court on 3-5, 3-7, 3-8 & 3-9-2007 for trial, I am beat. I stopped by a local shop to chat and saw that the owner has a Whitman folder (like a Dansco) of 1946-1964 Roosevelt silver dimes. He acquired it from a woman whose collector husband had died. Most, if not all, of the dimes have wild, multicolored album toning.
So I bought it today as a treat to myself. Will go through same tonight to ooh and aah over the new pickup.
Will give a follow up TTT after the trial is over and the court issues a ruling on the case (hopefully my client and I will win).
Thanks for the update. This is pretty interesting. I firmly believe that most cases (except for the ones on TV) are substantially won with the written brief rather than courtroom theatrics, like your opposing counsel seems to be pulling.
Always took candy from strangers Didn't wanna get me no trade Never want to be like papa Working for the boss every night and day --"Happy", by the Rolling Stones (1972)
The trial finished this morning. The court wants post trial briefs from me on 3-14-2007 and defense counsel on 3-21-2007. On the filing of these briefs the court will take the matter under submission. I will ge this decision in the mail.
Keeping my fingers crossed that the judge rules in favor of my client. The only way I can see the judge not ruling in my client's favor is if the judge ignores basic contract law and if he does not care about "private property rights" of citizens.
I treated myself to a coin purchase on Friday, in advance of the completion of the trial. A set of beautifully toned MS silver Roosies in a 38 year old Whitman holder with a two clear plastic slides [so you can see both sides of the coins]. I posted a separate thread about the toned dimes. Picked up the set at below bid and could not be happier with the quality and beauty of the coins.
Now if I win the case, I will get a really nice payday and will have to think of something a little less "Modern" to pick up.
When the decision comes in I will TTT my win or loss.
Well I got the court decision on the trial today. A split decision. The court would not give my client the right to partition the property, but it did award my client his share of the rents owed by the sibling who is living in the property, plus costs of suit.
All in all a disappointing decision. You never, never know how a judge or jury is going to decide a case. My client and I felt that we had a good case and proved my client's right to partition the property. Wrongo.
Guess I will not be treating myself to a new coin purchase (beyond the toned Roosie set I picked up earlier this month).
Tomorrow at 9:30 a.m. the case is set for a trial assignment in front of the presiding judge. Hopefully there is an open courtroom so that the PJ can assign the case to an available judge for trial. We may also be forced to spend the morning in front of a day of trial settlement comissioner as a condition precedent to the PJ assigning the case to a courtroom.
All my pretrial preparation is complete. All documents from my side that the local court rules require be filed and served on the other side 5 days before trial have been timely filed and served. The other side has filed and served nothing. I spent today doing trial prep work, including going over rules of evidence, pre trial motions in limine, reviewing and summarizing pleadings and outlining same, reviewing case law on partition of real property.
I am ready to rock and roll; and sally forth into courtroom battle. Hopefully the judge to whom the case is assigned for trial will be competent, knowledgeable, unbiased and interested in the case [instead of incompetent, stupid, biased and completely disinterested]. I also hope the trial judge is not a retired 85 year old judge who "pinch hits" a couple of times a month and while doing so falls asleep and snores on the bench [I have seen this happen].
The opposing attorney seems to be a "shoot from the hip" type of lawyer, who is light on pretrial preparation and heavy on throwing BS on the wall and hoping it sticks.
Stay tuned for updates. >>
Hope the judge didn't read this.
I manage money. I earn money. I save money . I give away money. I collect money. I don’t love money . I do love the Lord God.
Comments
Almost 6 hours spent on Friday afternoon and evening at a continued settlement conference. The case did not settle. If my client wins at trial he will recover over $215,000.00. He offered to take $175,000.00 in settlement. His three siblings countered at $50,000.00. $125K apart.
Trial is set for 3-5-2007, though there is no certainty that a courtroom will be available to try the case on that day. Trailing status is a possibility.
Families can be so stubborn and in this case a trial looks like it is inevitable. The only saving grace is that the settlement judge reviewed the case and said he thinks my client will probably win the trial.
<< <i>TTT.
Almost 6 hours spent on Friday afternoon and evening at a continued settlement conference. The case did not settle. If my client wins at trial he will recover over $215,000.00. He offered to take $175,000.00 in settlement. His three siblings countered at $50,000.00. $125K apart.
Trial is set for 3-5-2007, though there is no certainty that a courtroom will be available to try the case on that day. Trailing status is a possibility.
Families can be so stubborn and in this case a trial looks like it is inevitable. The only saving grace is that the settlement judge reviewed the case and said he thinks my client will probably win the trial. >>
Jeez...6 hours? We just tried a whole case in about 16 hours. Picked jury last Thurs morning, All day Friday, closed this morning, verdict in less than 1 hour of..... $300,000+ . We were offered -0- Do you at least get sanctions for winning?
Also, you would get a number (unknown) of rolls of steelies out of a group like this...
Whoever is careless with the truth in small matters cannot be trusted with important matters.
The saving grace is that if my client wins the partition lawsuit, he is entitled to recover his attorneys fees and court costs from the losing side. Any award of fees and costs will be recorded as a lien on the 3/4 interest in the property held by the defendants. In a case like this the only feasible way for the court to partition the property is to order the property sold to a third person and have the proceeds split. In that event my client gets his 1/4 of the sales proceeds and also gets paid his attorneys fees and costs from the 3/4 proceeds belonging to the other owners. However, he gets paid same before the other owners get paid the 3/4 in proceeds.
If my client wins he (and I) will do well.
JJ
In my case the 4 family members had fought over the property previously and entered into a settlement agreement. The agreement has the standard clause that if a breach occurs and litigation results, the winner can obtain an award of attorneys fees against the loser.
In California attorneys fees are recoverable only if a contract provides for same or a statute provides for same (there are a few exceptions to this general rule).
In my case, the breach of the settlement agreement by one defendant caused my client to file the partition lawsuit. The breaching defendant was served, did not respond and is in default. The other two defendants have filed answers and are defending the case. If I win, my client gets an award of attorneys fees against the breaching (and defaulted) defendant. Any award of fees is a money judgment which can then be placed on the breaching defendant's interest in the real property as a judgment lien. When the property is sold, the attorneys fees must be paid from the proceeds payable to the breaching defendant.
The long and short of it is that if my client wins at trial, he gets to force a sale of the property, collect his 25% of the proceeds and collect his attorneys fees and costs from the 25% of the proceeds belonging to the breaching defendant.
Stay tuned for a post trial report.
The defendant either thinks he has a strong case or is unreasonable.
Buy a nice 1859-S silver dollar.
Obscurum per obscurius
Didn't wanna get me no trade
Never want to be like papa
Working for the boss every night and day
--"Happy", by the Rolling Stones (1972)
Tomorrow at 9:30 a.m. the case is set for a trial assignment in front of the presiding judge. Hopefully there is an open courtroom so that the PJ can assign the case to an available judge for trial. We may also be forced to spend the morning in front of a day of trial settlement comissioner as a condition precedent to the PJ assigning the case to a courtroom.
All my pretrial preparation is complete. All documents from my side that the local court rules require be filed and served on the other side 5 days before trial have been timely filed and served. The other side has filed and served nothing. I spent today doing trial prep work, including going over rules of evidence, pre trial motions in limine, reviewing and summarizing pleadings and outlining same, reviewing case law on partition of real property.
I am ready to rock and roll; and sally forth into courtroom battle. Hopefully the judge to whom the case is assigned for trial will be competent, knowledgeable, unbiased and interested in the case [instead of incompetent, stupid, biased and completely disinterested]. I also hope the trial judge is not a retired 85 year old judge who "pinch hits" a couple of times a month and while doing so falls asleep and snores on the bench [I have seen this happen].
The opposing attorney seems to be a "shoot from the hip" type of lawyer, who is light on pretrial preparation and heavy on throwing BS on the wall and hoping it sticks.
Stay tuned for updates.
No courtrooms available today. The case is on telephone standby this week. If I get a call from the court my client and I have four hours to report to a courtroom for trial.
<< <i>TTT.
No courtrooms available today. The case is on telephone standby this week. If I get a call from the court my client and I have four hours to report to a courtroom for trial. >>
So what happens if the other party does not make it within the 4 hours?
Got a call on 3-6-07 saying report to court on 3-7-0.7 Trial started 3-7-07, continued today [even though the courthouse fire alram went off and the building had to be evacuated for 1.5 hours, resulting in delay]. Have to go back tomorrow for a short morning session and then come back on 3-12-2007 to finish up the trial. What a load of work.
Steve
Had about a half day worth of trial this morning and am now back in the office. Going back on Monday morning to finish the presentation of evidence [one witness to go]. Since the case is a court trial, the judge is speeding things up by letting each witness be examined once by both me and the defense attorney without regarding to the rules concerning direct examination, cross examination, redirect examination and recross examination for Plaintiff's case in chief and then after Plaintiff rests, the Defendants put on their case. The judge has stated he just wants all the witnesses to testify once and present all of the evidence so that the case can go faster.
The only thing of note that took place today was that the judge called a 5 minute recess and left the courtroom. While the judge was in chambers, the defense attorney went postal on me with a profanity laced tirade directed at me in front of my client, his clients, the court reporter and the courtroom clerk. It completely came out of the blue. I told the defense attorney "nice language counsel" and he spewed even more profanity my way.
My client told me that before the recess, during my examination of one of the defendants, defense counsel got extremely agitated and nervous. His hands were shaking so bad that the paper he was holding was rustling loudly. I was oblivious to what defense counsel was doing [during trial I typically ignore opposing counsel and concentrate on the judge, the witness and my examination].
I guess I really got under the skin of the defense counsel. I actually thought it was funny seeing him go nuts since it was so unexpected and out of the blue.
During the trial he has been aggressive, yet respectful of the judge. He shoots from the hip and has been throwing lots of irrelevent documents and other evidence out hoping something would stick. After the recess, the trial resumed and during further questioning the judge got very upset at defense counsel after he disagreed with an order by the judge that by Monday the witness is required to bring to court documents evidencing his receipt of rent income and his payment of property expenses [he testified verbally about same today but had no documentary proof and the judge wants to see the documents to prove the rent income and property expenses].
In addition to shooting from the hip, defense counsel's written work product is very weak. My trial brief is about 15-18 pages and sets forth a legal analysis of the case, with citations to statutory law and case law supporting same.
The trial brief of the defense counsel is one page in length, talks briefly of the facts, contains no legal analysis and does not cite any statutory law or case law to the court. Unbelievable.
To return to the "coin" aspect of this thread ("What should I buy if I win"), I will state that after trips to court on 3-5, 3-7, 3-8 & 3-9-2007 for trial, I am beat. I stopped by a local shop to chat and saw that the owner has a Whitman folder (like a Dansco) of 1946-1964 Roosevelt silver dimes. He acquired it from a woman whose collector husband had died. Most, if not all, of the dimes have wild, multicolored album toning.
So I bought it today as a treat to myself. Will go through same tonight to ooh and aah over the new pickup.
Will give a follow up TTT after the trial is over and the court issues a ruling on the case (hopefully my client and I will win).
Didn't wanna get me no trade
Never want to be like papa
Working for the boss every night and day
--"Happy", by the Rolling Stones (1972)
We shall see if you are correct. I will TTT with the results.
The trial finished this morning. The court wants post trial briefs from me on 3-14-2007 and defense counsel on 3-21-2007. On the filing of these briefs the court will take the matter under submission. I will ge this decision in the mail.
Keeping my fingers crossed that the judge rules in favor of my client. The only way I can see the judge not ruling in my client's favor is if the judge ignores basic contract law and if he does not care about "private property rights" of citizens.
I treated myself to a coin purchase on Friday, in advance of the completion of the trial. A set of beautifully toned MS silver Roosies in a 38 year old Whitman holder with a two clear plastic slides [so you can see both sides of the coins]. I posted a separate thread about the toned dimes. Picked up the set at below bid and could not be happier with the quality and beauty of the coins.
Now if I win the case, I will get a really nice payday and will have to think of something a little less "Modern" to pick up.
When the decision comes in I will TTT my win or loss.
Well I got the court decision on the trial today. A split decision. The court would not give my client the right to partition the property, but it did award my client his share of the rents owed by the sibling who is living in the property, plus costs of suit.
All in all a disappointing decision. You never, never know how a judge or jury is going to decide a case. My client and I felt that we had a good case and proved my client's right to partition the property. Wrongo.
Guess I will not be treating myself to a new coin purchase (beyond the toned Roosie set I picked up earlier this month).
<< <i>TTT.
Tomorrow at 9:30 a.m. the case is set for a trial assignment in front of the presiding judge. Hopefully there is an open courtroom so that the PJ can assign the case to an available judge for trial. We may also be forced to spend the morning in front of a day of trial settlement comissioner as a condition precedent to the PJ assigning the case to a courtroom.
All my pretrial preparation is complete. All documents from my side that the local court rules require be filed and served on the other side 5 days before trial have been timely filed and served. The other side has filed and served nothing. I spent today doing trial prep work, including going over rules of evidence, pre trial motions in limine, reviewing and summarizing pleadings and outlining same, reviewing case law on partition of real property.
I am ready to rock and roll; and sally forth into courtroom battle. Hopefully the judge to whom the case is assigned for trial will be competent, knowledgeable, unbiased and interested in the case [instead of incompetent, stupid, biased and completely disinterested]. I also hope the trial judge is not a retired 85 year old judge who "pinch hits" a couple of times a month and while doing so falls asleep and snores on the bench [I have seen this happen].
The opposing attorney seems to be a "shoot from the hip" type of lawyer, who is light on pretrial preparation and heavy on throwing BS on the wall and hoping it sticks.
Stay tuned for updates. >>
Hope the judge didn't read this.
I give away money. I collect money.
I don’t love money . I do love the Lord God.