Adjudication of complaint
I am in pro per. I have filed a lawsuit in the superior court against the owner of the unit above my unit for damaging my unit and refusing to fix it.
In the CNS, his attorney has stated that the defendant ''intends to file a motion for summary judgement/adjudication of issues''
To address this issue, should I also file a motion, and if so, what motion is it?
Thank you.
Re: Adjudication of complaint
This statement in a CMS serves the purpose of advising the court that such a motion might be filed. Such motions are usually filed, if at all, after some discovery has been conducted, as discovery is often necessary to form a factual foundation for a summary judgment motion.
There is nothing you need to do right now, except perhaps consider whether being in pro. per. is wise.
If and when such a motion is filed and served, you will need to file and serve an "Opposition" to it.
Generally speaking, defendants have a better chance of succeeding with such dispositive motions than plaintiffs. That is to say, defendants may succeed 30 - 40% of the time when they make an MSJ, while plaintiffs succeed with MSJs only 3 to 4% of the time. The reasons lie in the different burden of proving their positions as a matter of law.
