We recently posted a blog about California Code of Civil Procedure (CCP) section 998 offers with the help of Martha Klak—a very talented, bright star of a law clerk at our office.
The facts of this 6/28/22 California Court of Appeals decision Achay v. Huntington Beach Unified High School District (cited as 2022 WL 2339171) are sad: a high school student attends track practice after regular school hours.
In civil litigation, Parties have the ability to serve (the fancy word is “to propound”) formal discovery questions on the other sides. One purpose of formal discovery is to focus the case to the issues which need litigation and to possibly sector-off issues which Parties may agree or admit.
Before I dive into this info, let me give props to Noah Moss of our office. He’s a talent filled with great approaches and ideas, and this research spawned from him discussing drafting requests for admissions in a way to hold Defendants accountable in a structured way.
By Eric Ganci
If a person has acted improperly (negligently or maybe intentionally) and harmed someone else, sometimes California law allows Plaintiff to seek “punitive damages.” These damages serve to compensate the Plaintiff for injuries…and to punish the Defendant for the wrongful acts.
Here’s the scenario: you are prepping for a civil trial and late in the game, you just found a witness that you need or want to testify for your trial.
By Eric Ganci
If a Plaintiff sees a doctor on a lien, not covered by health insurance, can defense argue Plaintiff is uninsured?
Yes, this is a particular topic. But yes, this is the kind of stuff that comes up in civil trials.
Picture this: you are driving and cause a car crash (Defendant’s usually call it a car accident, but accidents imply no person is at fault). Let’s say this Defendant Driver feels bad and wants to use her insurance to pay for the car crash…but her Insurance Company does not want to pay…does that create a conflict of interest between the Attorney that represents both the Insurance Company (as a company) and the Defendant Driver (as a person)?
