California.
Hi All,
I was recently served a lawsuit on grounds of "Defamation". I've never been sued before and have consulted with three family member attorneys and another three attorneys that came by way of referral. I've explained the claim to all of them in great detail and have even presented to them the document of which is the cause for the defamation claim.
These six attorneys of whom I've consulted with so far all agree that the Plaintiff's case is extremely weak, at best. A couple of them even said that the plaintiff doesn't have a case *at all*.
The Plaintiff is representing himself. The drafted summons is *so* poorly written and full of defects, redundancy, and even grammatical errors that it suggests the plaintiff wrote it himself. It reads exactly how I know this individual to write.
My question is this:
Based on the research I've done so far about "defamation" cases, and based on the consults with the six attorneys I've had regarding this matter, it seems very likely that if *I* chose to write my own response to the summons, that the court will throw this case out due to the fact that there really isn't even a case to begin with. That said, in the event that the court does *not* throw out the case, will I then have the opportunity to hire a lawyer to represent me, or does representation need to be established from the beginning (the response)? In other words, if I represent myself in the "response phase", and the court does not throw out the case, then, at that point, I feel like I *would* want an attorney to represent me. Will I be able to switch from representing myself to having a lawyer represent me?
Thank you all so much!
-R
Hi All,
I was recently served a lawsuit on grounds of "Defamation". I've never been sued before and have consulted with three family member attorneys and another three attorneys that came by way of referral. I've explained the claim to all of them in great detail and have even presented to them the document of which is the cause for the defamation claim.
These six attorneys of whom I've consulted with so far all agree that the Plaintiff's case is extremely weak, at best. A couple of them even said that the plaintiff doesn't have a case *at all*.
The Plaintiff is representing himself. The drafted summons is *so* poorly written and full of defects, redundancy, and even grammatical errors that it suggests the plaintiff wrote it himself. It reads exactly how I know this individual to write.
My question is this:
Based on the research I've done so far about "defamation" cases, and based on the consults with the six attorneys I've had regarding this matter, it seems very likely that if *I* chose to write my own response to the summons, that the court will throw this case out due to the fact that there really isn't even a case to begin with. That said, in the event that the court does *not* throw out the case, will I then have the opportunity to hire a lawyer to represent me, or does representation need to be established from the beginning (the response)? In other words, if I represent myself in the "response phase", and the court does not throw out the case, then, at that point, I feel like I *would* want an attorney to represent me. Will I be able to switch from representing myself to having a lawyer represent me?
Thank you all so much!
-R
