Dismissal w/out prejudice

[Bsamy]

Jurisdiction

Virginia

A case was dismissed without prejudice but the judge included an opinion at the end of it based on evidence he requested from the defendant(s) that the plaintiff was not informed of. Specific information the judge requested as well as additional, significantly prejudicial documents that were not requested were submitted. His decision (or opinion?) referenced material that did not include the full sequence of the event in question, all of which is and was documented....the opinion was contrary to documented facts.
All of this was done after granting the defendant(s) a demurrer.

Being dismissed w/out prejudice, from what I can gather, is not a final decision, so it can't be appealed...? But an opinion/decision was added based on incomplete/inaccurate evidence that the plaintiff had no access to....how does one proceed?

 

[adjusterjack]

Dismissed without prejudice means that the plaintiff can refile and hope he does better next time.

 

[army judge]

how does one proceed?

How to proceed depends upon whether one was the defendant or plaintiff.

I suspect the defendant should be rejoicing, and most smart defendants would simply say and do nothing.

On the other hand, if one were the plaintiff, one might consider refiling the case.

Some plaintiffs might let it go and move on with their lives.

 

[flyingron]

Could the dismissal be appealed? Certainly, but you've not given anywhere near enough detail to determine if that is a viable option. While there may be some judicial error here in not informing the plaintiff (not enough to tell if this was a problem or not), a demurrer usually results from a decision that even if you accept the claims made by the plaintiff, there's nothing to support a decision for the plaintiff.

The likely action would be for the plaintiff to refile with either the missing information or altering the claims to make something that would be actionable.