Lessons · Law foundations · the life of a civil case
The life of a civil case, start to finish
A civil case runs through the same stages in the same order: complaint, service, answer, discovery, motions, trial, judgment, and then any appeal.
Hone is a place to practise a career, one idea a day. This is one of its lessons, written out in full and free to read without an account.
What it is for
Every question anybody asks about a file is really the question what stage are we at. Deadlines, what may be filed, what the other side is entitled to see: all of it follows from the stage, and a paralegal who can place a file on that line can answer half the questions in the room without opening it.
How to think about it
Learn the spine, then hang the particular file on it. Write the stage and its date on the front of the file, and update it the day the stage changes.
Worked example
Complaint filed, then served on the defendant.The case starts on paper, and the clock for answering starts when the papers are delivered, not when they were written.
Answer filed, admitting or denying each paragraph.What is admitted stops being in dispute. What is denied is the work of the case.
Discovery: each side gets what the other has.The longest stage by far, and the one that decides most cases.
Motions, then trial, then judgment.Motions can end it early. Trial decides what is left. Judgment is the court's decision written down and entered.
Your turn
The judgment is entered and the losing side wants a higher court to look at it. Write the word for what they file.
After judgment, the losing side may file an
Solve one, graded on the server
The trap
Treating filing and service as the same event. Filing puts the paper in front of the court; service puts it in the hands of the other side, and almost every clock in the file starts from the second one.