Pretrial conference & discovery

[Lostinspace]

Jurisdiction

Florida

Im being sued? Someone i was friends with long ago filed a cival case against me for 900$

Pretrial conference thru internet zoom is on 2 aug. What should i expect then?

Should i challenge any of her evidence? Should i present my evidence then or do i need to submit that sooner?

What else?

Tks

 

[flyingron]

Small Claims Court – The Eighth Judicial Circuit of Florida.

Unless there is something defective in her filing (which the judge will probably pick up on), the pretrial conference is primarily to either direct you into mediation or set the trial date. It's not the trial, you're not going to start "refuting" the other side.

 

[zddoodah]

Im being sued?

Is this a question?

Pretrial conference thru internet zoom is on 2 aug. What should i expect then?

Assuming the case is in small claims court, the answer could have been obtained by googling, "florida small claims court pretrial conference."

Should i challenge any of her evidence?

I don't know. What is the evidence, and on what basis would you propose to challenge it? Keep in mind that you've told us NOTHING about the nature of the lawsuit.

Should i present my evidence then

The time to present evidence is at trial.

 

[Tax Counsel]

Im being sued? Someone i was friends with long ago filed a cival case against me for 900$

Let's start here. What exactly is the former friend suing you for and when did that event occur? It may be that the statute of limitations for the claim has expired, in which case you'd want to file a motion to dismiss on that basis, if pretrial motions are allowed in the court this is taking place. Most small claims courts don't allow pretrial motions, in which case the first thing at trial I'd present is the motion to dismiss based on the SOL. You'd need to find your state's rules on that.

Pretrial conference thru internet zoom is on 2 aug. What should i expect then?

What you should do depends on the purpose of the conference, and if this conference is court ordered, that should be state in the order. It is not, however, a time to present evidence or argue the merits of your case. Pretrial conferences tend to focus on administrative things like the possibility of mediation, setting dates for what comes next, etc. But again, it matters what the purpose is, and you haven't told what that is.

 

[Lostinspace]

Lostinspace said: ↑
Pretrial conference thru internet zoom is on 2 aug. What should i expect then?
Assuming the case is in small claims court, the answer could have been obtained by googling, "florida small claims court pretrial conference."

Lostinspace said: ↑
Should i challenge any of her evidence?
I don't know. What is the evidence, and on what basis would you propose to challenge it? Keep in mind that you've told us NOTHING about the nature of the lawsuit.

Generally I dont trust goodle. There is a lot of mis information out there. After searching for several hours I did find an official looking document from orange county that stated that discovery needed to be compete prior to a civil pretrial and one from minnesota that said similar. I found nothing that looked official from pinellas county.

I didnt know that i needed to give case specific details concerning my question asking if i should challenge any of her evidence at pretrial.

nothing in the summons said "small claims"

ok.

"Let's start here. What exactly is the former friend suing you for and when did that event occur? It may be that the statute of limitations for the claim has expired, in which case you'd want to file a motion to dismiss on that basis, if pretrial motions are allowed in the court this is taking place. Most small claims courts don't allow pretrial motions, in which case the first thing at trial I'd present is the motion to dismiss based on the SOL. You'd need to find your state's rules on that."

November 2018. SOL is 5 yrs.
she offered to mulch my yard if i fixed her mower.
She said mower does not need to be done until June of 2019. (rainy season)
she never finished my yard, but to the point,
she demanded that I fix it right away. I said Im busy and will well before June 2019. She said dont touch my mover and came of her own free will and took it back a few days later still in November 2018.
she paid someone else 10$ to fix it.
she is demanding 800$ from me for her mulch work. She even has quotes. I dont believe it would cost that much.

"What you should do depends on the purpose of the conference, and if this conference is court ordered, that should be state in the order. It is not, however, a time to present evidence or argue the merits of your case. Pretrial conferences tend to focus on administrative things like the possibility of mediation, setting dates for what comes next, etc. But again, it matters what the purpose is, and you haven't told what that is."

from summons: "purpose of pretrial conference is to record your appearance, determine nature of case, set case for trial if it case be resolved at pretrial conference". so how can this be resolved at pretrial

next paragraph says: "you may be ordered to mediate at pretrial conference"

what is "note your defenses for the record"?

 

[adjusterjack]

I didnt know that i needed to give case specific details

We can't comment on anything if we don't know what's happening.

nothing in the summons said "small claims"

It can sometimes be inferred by the case details.

Somebody suing for only $900 would be foolish to opt for the complexity and cost of regular court.

The Pinellas "Statement of Claim" says "Small Claims Division" at the top. Regular court forms say "Civil Division" at the top.

I suggest you post a copy of the summons and complaint/petition, redacting any identifying information.

Meantime, you can find the rules of regular court and small claims court at:

Florida Rules of Court Procedure – The Florida Bar

I wrote this before seeing your post #7.

It would still help to see the actual summons and complaint.

 

[Lostinspace]

sorry I missed it. it does say small claims division

tks for the link. ill ck it out later, but i dont want to get to far ahead of myself. I wanna be ready for the pre trial conference.

summons says that case might be resolved at pre trial. i dont want to miss an opportunity to have this dismissed or resolved, but i dont know what that involves, since i dont believe that I will be submitting evidence then.

p

 

[adjusterjack]

summons says that case might be resolved at pre trial. i dont want to miss an opportunity to have this dismissed or resolved, but i dont know what that involves, since i dont believe that I will be submitting evidence then.

The judge will probably give you each a few minutes to state your side of the story. Be prepared to submit your evidence as to why you don't owe her any money or at least not as much as she wants. The judge may give you an opportunity to mediate and reach a compromise where you pay her some of it. If you can't reach a compromise you go to trial.

Keep in mind that you have already admitted that she did some mulching and you did not repair her mower. You are likely to owe her something for the work she did. Get a written estimate for the amount of mulching she did and have it for the zoom hearing.

My guess is that this will be a he said, she said hearing and the judge will make short work of it.

 

[Lostinspace]

so even though she took mover back after 2 days and before I had opportunity to fix it and then it cost her 10$ to have someone else fix it.

 

[adjusterjack]

Maybe.

No way to predict how this will play out.

 

[Lostinspace]

that is always the case, which is why i want to hedge my bet and go in knowing as much as possible.

 

[adjusterjack]

All you can do is go in and present "evidence" as to why you don't owe her $800.

You are over thinking it if you think you have to "know" anything else.

What "evidence" do you have that you don't owe her $800?

 

[flyingron]

Again, this is not what the pretrial conference is for. The pretrial conference is to try to steer you into mediation or handle certain procedural issues and to schedule the actual trial. It's not a case for you to argue that the you didn't do what the other party claims or whatever.

 

[zddoodah]

summons says that case might be resolved at pre trial. i dont want to miss an opportunity to have this dismissed or resolved, but i dont know what that involves, since i dont believe that I will be submitting evidence then.

The case might be resolved at, before or after the pretrial conference. It might be resolved at any time. I'm looking at a small claims packet for Clay County. Take a look at the "Mediation and Pre-trial Conference" section on page 6 of the PDF. Of course, I don't know if you're in Clay County, so you should look for this sort of information at the website for the clerk of the county where your case is filed. You can bring documentary evidence with you, but the court isn't likely to look at it and certainly isn't going to make any sort of ruling on the merits of the case.

 

[adjusterjack]

You can bring documentary evidence with you, but the court isn't likely to look at it and certainly isn't going to make any sort of ruling on the merits of the case.

Better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it.