Before filing a case

In this stage, you have to assess yourself to take this lawsuit whether it is possible to win the case. Because the process of filing a case is a complex one and it may also cause unpleasant results. Hence, when you file a case, you must have more probability to win the case. If a way is possible to solve your dispute without appealing, then you must choose that way to proceed. If you decide to file a suit, you have to collect all related information to win your suit.

Filing and responding complaint

When you file a lawsuit with a best civil lawyers in chennai, the legal documents used at the beginning are called pleadings which give a layout of the plaintiff’s case. The pleading contains identification of both parties, the claim statement, facts that relate the claims. When the defendant receives the complaint, he will have to file a response to the complaint called answer. The answer contains the response of each paragraph in the complaint. Some of the answers may be in the  form of motion. In India, the first step of all pleading cases is the presentation of the complaint.

Discovery

After the response from the defendant side, both people search evidence against the other. In this stage, the two parties have to find or discover the evidence of the other parties. In order to find the evidence, they are required to exchange some needed information which is helpful to win the suit. If you require certain needed specific information from the other party, you can get it with the help of discovery tools.

Advantages of Discovery stage:

It will be helpful for preparing the trial stage where they have to manifest their case.

It can make the parties examine the weakness and strength of the other party.

When each of the parties get to know about the other party and their evidence, they can solve their problems without entering the trial stage if only they are in a good state.

It will allow the parties to collect the information which are required to file the motions. If any issues present in the case, the parties write submissions to the court called motions. Motions are used to reduce the problems for the trial stage and even it can resolve the case completely before the trial.

The main advantage of the discovery stage is that the two sides generally do not need to go to the court unless there is an issue in getting the information.

Pre-trial stage

It is a stage where the parties attempt to aim at the problems present in the lawsuit and try to get free of claims. Motions are mainly filed by both sides in this stage where they asked the judge to take legal actions against the other side which are based on the client side argument. The probability of winning and losing the motion is equal and so you have to be careful while handling the motion.

Motion contains

Summary Judgement: It is the most powerful tool. It requests the judge to make a decision and provide immediately based on the stated facts.

Motion to dismiss: Request the court to dismiss the case if there is no dispute among the parties

Motion to discover: If the parties need evidence from the other side till now, they request the court to get it.

Trial Stage

It is the most important stage where you get the justice of your case by proving the stated facts. Both parties must have to attend the court and their attorneys sue for their clients. The first presentation is presented by the plaintiff lawyer. The witnesses of the plaintiff are asked to come, questioned and cross-questioned by the defendant attorney and vice versa. When the examination of witnesses is completed, the attorneys of both sides have to close their arguments. After closing the arguments, the judge or jury will give judgement of the case. In a bench trial, the judge alone takes the verdict based on the arguments of both sides. In jury trial, the judge will consider the jury’s decision, then the judge will give the judgement.

Post-Trial stage

After the judgement given by the judge, the winning side must try to compensate their court fees, attorney fees or other money damages. Both sides have the right to alter the judgement by appealing the lawsuit in higher court to review the case if they are not satisfied with the judgement.

When you appeal the case, it may give you positive results but not all the time. In appeal, there are several judges reviewing the case not like a single judge in trial and also there is no jury in the appeal. There are no arguments and examination of witnesses. The one who appeals cannot introduce new facts to the case. So, the judges of the appellate court just review the judgement and they can remand the case again to the lower court or even start a new trial or modify the trial court’s judgement.

The article is presented in an education motive from a digital marketing company in Chennai.