Resolving Your Case Before Trial: Court Motions
Pretrial motions can resolve many important questions about your lawsuit. A motion is a request your lawyer files with the court asking for a ruling on a particular matter. If the ruling on the motion could terminate the litigation and end the dispute before trial, it is called a dispositive motion. If the ruling is on some incidental question that arises during the litigation, it is a nondispositive motion. The information below is intended to give you a basic idea of dispositive motions that might end your case before trial, and how those motions work.
Motion to Dismiss
A motion to dismiss is sometimes filed in the very early stages of the litigation, before the parties have conducted discovery. The material presented in the complaint and any exhibits to the complaint are the focus of the motion. The motion is brought when the defendant believes that the complaint is legally deficient in some way. In deciding a motion to dismiss, the court must view the facts set forth in the complaint in the light most favorable to the plaintiff. The motion to dismiss is usually based on one or more of the following legal deficiencies:
Lack of subject matter jurisdiction, meaning that the court doesn't have the power to rule on the controversy. For example, state law may require a special court to determine certain matters, such as requiring that a probate court, rather than a general civil court, decide a complaint involving the interpretation of a will.
Lack of personal jurisdiction
. This means that the court does not have power to make decisions affecting the defendant personally. The court lacks jurisdiction over you if you do not have sufficient minimum contacts with the place where the lawsuit has been filed. For example, if you were involved in an automobile accident at Yellowstone National Park, but you live in Florida and you're being sued in Vermont, you would have a good reason to argue that the Vermont court doesn't have jurisdiction over you.
Page 1 of 3
Next Page
