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There are five major stages of every civil case, and they go in sequence. In this section, you will learn:
- the stages of a civil case,
- the purpose of each stage of a case.
The Complaint stage is where the person or persons using or bringing the lawsuit state their claim.
The Answer stage is where the person or persons being sued and defending the lawsuit explain why they’re not liable.
The Discovery stage is where each side gets to look at the other side’s evidence.
The Trial stage is where the evidence is weighed by a judge or jury to reach a judgment.
The Appeal stage is where the losing side asks a higher court to reverse the decision(s) of the trial court.
Transcript
Hi. I\’m Portia, and welcome to our first course, Civil Litigation one hundred and one.
In lesson one, we\’ll look at the stages of litigation, including the complaint, the answer, discovery, trial, and appeal stages.
Then we\’ll share a tip that\’s specific to pro se litigants to help put your best foot forward in court.
The complaint stage is where the person or person suing or bringing the lawsuit state their claim.
The person being sued learns of the case through hand delivery of a summons usually to his house by a process server.
If the person being sued can\’t be reached after many tries, the claim is announced in a newspaper instead.
The answer stage is where the person or persons being sued and defending the lawsuit explain why they are not liable.
The person being sued must answer the complaint but not by phone, text, email, or letter to the judge. Instead, once the person being sued gets a complaint, he or she must answer it by pleading in writing or in person at a scheduled hearing.
Discovery is an opportunity to review the case by taking a peek at the other side\’s evidence.
How do you do that? You do that by written questions called interrogatories, requests for admissions, or production of documents, or through oral depositions.
The trial stage is where the evidence is weighed by a jury or judge to reach a judgment.
At that point, the judge grants or denies the request for damages by the person filing the suit.
The appeal stage is where the losing side asks a higher court to reverse the decisions of the trial court. The judges in the higher court affirm or reverse the decision of the lower court.
One goal in these lessons is to give you a pro se perspective on legal topics.
Our topic today is about what to wear in court.
Don\’t go to court looking like a lawyer. Look like you represent yourself, but argue like a lawyer.
This is too dressy. In other words, too lawyerly.
This is too sexy.
You don\’t want to distract.
The rumpled look is on the edge. It might be okay, but then again, the judge might see it as disrespectful.
Go for the casual but respectful look. When you look like you represent yourself, you\’re often underestimated. So when you argue like a lawyer, you blow away the judge and leave the lawyer for the other side unprepared for the assault.