Hardly a week goes by without a news source reporting that a legal case was dismissed “on technicalities.” What are these legal technicalities, and why are they important?
The American legal system includes courts at multiple levels, from municipal courts to state courts to federal courts, and each of those courts operates under a set of rules and laws governing how business is to be conducted in them.
Those rules and laws tell lawyers (as well as those who choose to represent themselves without lawyers) what is required to bring a case before a court. For example, a person filing a legal case needs to have “standing,” or a present injury, to do so. Even though you may be outraged about how your sister was treated by her neighbor, you lack standing to sue because you weren’t the one injured.
Legal guidelines tell us which courts can hear which cases. If an accident happens in Philadelphia, the injured person will probably have to file a lawsuit in Pennsylvania, and not in a Missouri court. Even within a state, the state circuit court can hear certain cases, while the federal district court can hear others, and a case may be heard in one county or district, but not in another not connected to the case.
Beyond these kinds of rules, courts expect the people appearing before them to take specific steps to get their cases to trial. Failure to follow those steps can result in a judge dismissing the case or penalizing the lawyers or people they represent. There are “discovery” rules governing how information about the case is to be provided to the other side and “pleading” rules telling the disputing parties how they are to present their cases on paper.
Some laws and rules set time deadlines for aspects of a lawsuit, such as how quickly responses are to be filed and what steps need to be taken before a case can come to trial. Other rules tell us how to bring various pre-trial matters before a court and even what happens when we fail to follow rules.
These rules exist to protect the disputing parties and to keep the courts operating in an orderly fashion. Failing to follow them could put one party at a distinct disadvantage. For example, the rules require that someone who is sued gets served with a summons to inform them of the case against them. Without being put on notice, a person could be denied the opportunity to present a defense.
Lawyers are expected to know the rules that apply to any cases they file with a court. When they ignore the rules, the judge can impose a variety of sanctions, the most severe of which is to dismiss the case “on legal technicalities.”
Professional legal representation gives you the best opportunity to assess your chances of success and to achieve that success without being tripped up by these “technicalities.”
The lawyers of Paule, Camazine & Blumenthal have the training and experience to give you capable representation that will put you in the best position to avoid the “technicalities” trap.
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