Truck Accident Lawsuits – Motions

What is a Motion?

At its most basic, a motion is a formal request to the court to do or not do something. Motions are most often made in writing. However some motions may be made orally. Motions made during a trial or hearing are an example of this.

Court rules and judge’s rulings control the procedure for motions. The process usually starts with a person (often called the movant) filing or making the motion. If the motion is in writing, court rules usually require that the other party be provided a copy of the motion and have a chance to respond to it before the court rules on the question. In some courts, the other party has a set  number of days to submit a written response to the motion. In other courts the motion may be set for a hearing for the parties will appear in court and argue the motion. These are two common ways that written motions are handled in the American legal system. Depending on the specifics of the case, rules of procedure and the specific jurisdiction and individual judges, preferences there may be other methods.

Oral motions are often made at a trial or hearing to address issues which arise during a trial or hearing. These are often handled when they arise without the opportunity to submit written responses.

While the kinds of requests that can be the subject of a motion are very broad, certain types of motions are seen repeatedly in litigation arising from truck accidents. Some of those motions include motions to dismiss, motions for summary judgment, motions to compel, motions to exclude experts, and motions in limine. These are explained in detail below.

1. Motion to Dismiss.

As its name suggests, a motion to dismiss asks the court to dismiss part or all of a case.  There are a number of grounds for requesting dismissal through a motion to dismiss. For example, on many claims, the law provides a period of time within which you must file a lawsuit. This is often called a statute of limitations. If you don’t file suit within this time period your claim can go away. One application of a motion to dismiss is to seek the dismissal of a case filed after the statute of limitations has expired.

Another situation where a motion to dismiss might be filed is if the law does not provide a remedy in the circumstances. The law does not provide a remedy for every wrong. So if someone filed a lawsuit asking for something that the law simply does not provide, filing a motion to dismiss may be the correct response. These are just two examples of the many situations a motion to dismiss may be filed in. 

2. Motion for Summary Judgment.

There are cases in which the facts are not disputed and the only issues to be decided are purely legal questions. This is exactly the type of situation the motion for summary judgment was designed for. By resolving the case through the summary judgment procedure the case is resolved more quickly and the time and expense involved in having a trial are avoided.

If all of the evidence in the case as a whole, or certain parts of the case, points in one direction, then a party may file a motion for summary judgment, asking the court to enter judgment in the whole case or only on certain issues in the case. To request this they file a detailed Motion for Summary Judgment and supporting memorandum specifying the facts which are not in dispute, together with references in the record, where proof of these facts is found. To support entering the judgment they have requested they also provide citations to court cases and laws which support what they are asking the court to do. They are then required to file the motion with the court and serve copies of the motion on the party against which they are seeking judgment.

The other party must review the motion for summary judgment and see if the facts are truly not in dispute. If the party disputes the claims they must cite the facts which are in dispute with references to evidence of the disputed facts in the record. They may also supply their own statements showing why there is enough dispute about the facts that summary judgment is not appropriate. They may also supply their own case and statute citations and legal arguments.

Once the motions and responses have been submitted to the court, the court will typically review them for a period of time and then issue a ruling granting or denying the summary judgment. In some cases the court may grant part of the summary judgment sought and deny other parts of it. 

3. Motion to Compel.

A motion to to compel is a formal request to the court to order a party to produce information or documents that have been requested in discovery.

Discovery is the part of litigation process where each side can ask for information and documents from the other side. In discovery, we ask the lawyer for the trucking company and truck driver for information we think may be helpful to your case. You might expect that the defense lawyers may not be eager to provide this information. The discovery process lets them object to providing information, which they often do. There are specific circumstances in which these objections are proper and other ones in which they are not.

If the defense lawyers object to providing information that was properly requested, common practice, depending on local court procedure, is to have a phone call with them or write them a letter addressing the issues. If the lawyers cannot work out the issues between themselves then a “discovery dispute” exists. In some courts, the next step is to have a telephone conference with the judge to attempt to resolve the problem.

Some courts do not require the additional step of a telephone conference with the judge. In these courts, and in courts where the telephone conference with the judge was not successful in resolving the discovery dispute, the next step usually is to filing a motion to compel. This is a formal request for the court to order the other side to provide the information or documents being sought. Copies of the discovery which is in dispute and copies of the parties responses to them are typically submitted with the motion. After the motion to compel is filed, the party resisting the discovery will usually have an opportunity to respond in writing or orally.

After they have filed a written response, the response deadline has passed or they have appeared before the judge and orally addressed the motion, the judge will usually make a ruling. The judge may sustain the motion and order the other party to provide the information requested, deny the motion, in which case the party resisting the discovery is not required to provide the information or order the other party to provide parts of  the information which has been requested and not provide other parts. 

4. Motion to Exclude Experts.

Your truck accident case can involve issues that require specialized knowledge and expertise. For example, if there are questions concerning your truck accident occurred an accident reconstruction-ist may be needed to apply  scientific and engineering techniques to explain how the crash happened. An expert on truck driving may be brought in to Provide opinions about standards and safety procedures for truck driving and whether the truck driver complied with these. If your case involves the need for medical care in the future a life care planner may be brought to calculate the future cost of this care.  If your income earning ability was reduced by the injuries sustained in your crash, a vocational expert may be needed to prove the extent of your losses. The list goes on.

Proof on issues like these that involve this specialized expertise and knowledge is often admitted into evidence by expert witness testimony. In the past there have been some issues with the quality and reliability of this testimony. To address these problems, in 1993 the United States Supreme Court  decided the landmark Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc. case. The Daubert decision applies directly in cases in federal courts. Depending on state law and court decisions, it may also have application in state court cases.

The Daubert decision puts the trial judge in the position of deciding whether expert testimony is admissible at your trial. Some factors the judge is supposed to consider in deciding whether to admit the testimony include whether the methods used by the expert has been or can be tested, whether it is generally accepted, the known or potential error rate and whether it is been subjected to peer review and publication.

Since the Daubert decision, motions to exclude expert testimony have become common. Based on the factors listed in Daubert and others, these motions attack the relevance and reliability of expert testimony and ask the trial judge to order that it not be offered or admitted into evidence during the trial. If the judge in federal court finds that the testimony does not meet the Daubert requirements it can be excluded from evidence. State courts also have standards for whether expert testimony can be admitted in evidence.

5. Motion in Limine.

The goal of a motion in limine is to prevent the use of or reference to certain evidence or arguments during a trial or hearing. From television and movies you may be familiar with the situations where the lawyer jumps up and says Objection Your Honor! Irrelevant! or something similar. When evidence objections are handled in that way jurors may have heard enough to know that there may be something there and one side doesn’t want them to find out about it. They may draw a negative conclusions from this.

A motion in limine lets the lawyer who wants to keep the evidence or arguments out of the case challenge the admissibility of the evidence or arguments with the judge before they are presented in the courtroom where the jury can hear them. The judge will generally rule on the motion and admissibility of the evidence ahead of time. If the motion in limine is sustained, the evidence is excluded avoiding problems with jurors drawing conclusions from evidence that was objected to and excluded. If the motion is overruled, the evidence can be used at trial