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What’s a motion to compel · Family Law Talk

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to Familylaw Talk. Familylaw Talk presented by Kurt Stangy
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  of Stangy Lawfirm PC. Stangy Law Firm is a multi
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  state family law firm. Now here's your host, Kurk Stangy.
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  Speaker 2: Welcome to Family Law Talk. We have an interesting topic today.
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  The topic is what's emotion to compel in? The episode
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  today is based on an article on our blog Familawheadquarters
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  dot com dated December seventeenth, twenty twenty four, and the
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  title of that article is What's emotion to compel in
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  FAMI law Litigation? So as a follow up to the
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  episode today, go on over to familaweadquarters dot com and
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  read the article on the same topic for more information.
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  But let's go ahead and jump into the topic at
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  hand today. Obviously, divorce and FAMI law litigation can be
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  quite difficult. When a judge has to make a decision
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  regarding child custody, child supports, maintenance, property division, and other
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  issues in the family court. It can be really overwhelming
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  for many individuals the concept that one judge is going
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  to decide their case, but the reality is is in
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  terms of presenting a case in the family court, discovery
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  can be an integral part of that process, and really
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  as part of the process in discovery, what individuals are
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  attempting to do is learn the other side story, get
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  the evidence that the other side has at their custody
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  and control that they intend to present in court. And
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  that way there's no surprises and individuals able to foresee
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  what the other side's argument is going to be get
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  any of their evidence, and that gives an individual time
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  to come up with counter arguments or the ability to
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  assemble and put together evidence and exhibits to really contradict
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  what the other side is going to present in court. Okay.
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  And when we talk about discovery, you know, there's lots
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  of different types of discovery if you will, that individuals
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  could utilize in family all litigation. But two of the
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  big ones are called interrogatories and requests for production all right.
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  Interrogatories are written questions that one party serves on the
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  other side, and they have to answer these questions, okay,
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  and the nuances can vary by jurisdiction, and some jurisdictions,
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  you know, an individual can be limited in terms of
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  the number of interrogatories they serve. Sometimes they have to
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  answer the interrogatories first before the other side is required
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  to respond to them. But these are written questions, okay.
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  It could be background information like employment history and how
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  much money somebody's making too, you know, questions involving child custody.
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  In terms of what a party is requesting in court,
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  any evidence that they have to really substantiate or back
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  up their request. That could be interrogatories involving you know,
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  marital property and debt, like how much money somebody has
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  an X, Y and Z account. I mean really, which
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  is sort of I mean, the possibilities are really endless,
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  if you will, okay. In terms of intererogatories, and then
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  requests for production are another important tool in the discovery process.
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  And then the requests for production parties are specifically asking
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  for documents and evidence from the other side. Okay. It
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  could be tax returns, could be paycheck stubs, It could
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  be daycare records. It could be titles to vehicles or
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  real estate, could be for one K statements or pension statements.
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  Could be text messages, emails, photos, videos, other evidence that
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  a party thinks is going to be important in the
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  case itself. And again the rules are kind of the
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  same and some jurisdictions there might be a limit on
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  the number of requests for productions that can be propounded
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  on the other party. Sometimes a party has to answer
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  their requests for productions first before the other side is
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  required to respond. And obviously in other jurisdictions there can
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  be other nuances as well, all right, But once these
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  are served, and once they're served appropriately, then there's typically
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  a time deadline in what's the other party has to respond.
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  And again this is going to vary based on jurisdiction. Again,
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  but Missouri, where I've predominantly practiced, it's thirty days that
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  a party has to respond to discovery served upon them. Certainly,
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  talk to a lawyer who's license and competent to practice
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  law on your jurisdiction to find out what the time
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  deadlines are in your jurisdiction. Okay, this can vary by state,
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  and sometimes it can even vary based on the locality.
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  But look what ends up happening is sometimes a party
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  doesn't respond at all, all right, So if it's a
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  thirty day deadline, they just don't respond. In other instances,
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  a party may respond, but the responses are incomplete, let's say, right,
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  not everything that they had they turned over. You know,
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  sometimes a party might object a certain discovery served upon
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  them based on evidentiary reasons, so they don't respond at all,
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  and so then really the question is in any of
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  these scenarios, whether they haven't responded, whether the responses are incomplete,
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  or whether the other party's objected. You know, the question
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  is what do you do or what does your lawyer
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  do to get the other side to respond? And that's
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  what emotion to compel is. Okay, emotion to compel is emotion.
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  It's filed in court and then it's typically noticed for
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  hearing in front of a judge, and the idea is
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  to get a specific court order from the judge ordering
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  the other side to respond to the discovery itself. Okay,
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  if a party hasn't responded at all, you know, these
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  motions can be a tad bit easier because you just say, hey, judge,
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  they haven't given us anything. If you're dealing with incomplete responses,
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  then oftentimes this can be a little more nuanced in
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  front of the judge, where a lawyer's got to explained
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  what's missing, what wasn't turned over. And then obviously if
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  there's evidentiary objects to the discovery itself, and you know,
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  evidentiary objections can be you know, countless possibilities, but it
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  could be relevance. It could be that it's based on
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  here's say that it's not limited in time and scope
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  and so on down the line. But in these circumstances,
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  a judge then has to actually look at the discovery
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  that was issued, has to then look at the objection,
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  and then typically it has to go through each of
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  the interrogatories of the requests for productions one by one,
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  and in theory a judge could overrule the objection where
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  they could sustain the objection, and then you know, at
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  the end of the day, if the judge finds it,
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  you know, more information needs to be turned over, either
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  in terms of the interrogatories or the requests for production
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  than a judge sets a time frame typically in terms
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  of when that needs to take place by and then
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  at that point the hope is that the end, you know,
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  the other side responds to the discovery and the evidence
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  is turned over over as required. Look, in some circumstances,
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  a party still doesn't respond even after being ordered to
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  do so by the judge, and that can require an
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  additional emotion to compel, or maybe even emotion for sanctions
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  if a party you believes the other science is not
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  acting in good faith. Okay, you know, obviously there's other
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  nuances to emotions to compel as well. You know, so
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  speak to a lawyer in your jurisdiction. But oftentimes parties
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  or to make a good faith effort at attempting to
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  resolve the discovery dispute without filing emotion to compel. So oftentimes,
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  you know, letter is sent first that says, hey, you're late,
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  you didn't respond to the discovery, let's talk about it
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  or give me your responses, and if you don't buy X,
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  Y and Z date, then we're going to file emotion
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  to compel. And this is called a good faith letter,
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  if you will. And oftentimes what courts you're looking for
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  is that attorneys can get on the phone, communicate with
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  one another and work through these discovery disputes without the
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  need of the judge being involved. But look, sometimes that's
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  just not possible, and so emotions to compel can be
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  very important, particularly in cases where there's you know, information
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  you need evidence that you think is important and you
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  don't have it, and so you know, having your lawyer
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  file emotion at compel can be important and in fact,
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  in family all litigation is very very common in something
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  that happens quite often. So you know, it's important to
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  have that discussion with the lawyer to make sure that
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  the other sign's not getting out of responding to the
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  discovery that they're required to respond to in the case. Okay,
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  So that's what emotion to compel is, so definitely an
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  interesting topic one I wanted to cover is a follow
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  up to the episode today. Going over to Familollheadquarters dot com,
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  read the article titled what's emotion to compel and familylaw Litigation.
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  The date of the article is December seventeen, twenty twenty four.
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  That'll give you more information on this topic. But look,
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  thanks for tuning in today, Stay tuned our next episode
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  of Family All Talk coming up. Thank you very much.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you for listening to Family Law Talk with Kirk Stangy.
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  Visit Stangy Lawfirm dot com for more about today's topic
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