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Faxing Documents to Counsel May Not Be Authorized.
Superior Courts: Don't forget that you cannot fax deliver pleadings to opposing counsel without prior permission. Recent case law has supported this when counsel faxed a CR 68 Offer of Judgment. However the fax was not considered effective by the court because "absent the parties written stipulation agreeing on service of documents by fax, service of an offer of judgment by fax is ineffective." This would of course apply to a Notice of Trial DeNovo under MAR 7.1 as well as all other pleadings in the case. I have often seen in a Notice of Appearance language such as "Facsimile transmission of documents and pleadings is not authorized without the prior written agreement of the parties." This language tells plaintiff's counsel - don't fax stuff to me - it's not acceptable.
All excited about being able to eventually email documents to the Court?
Don't forget that even when King County Superior Court and others accept emailing pleadings to be filed with the court, this will not help you get things to the Judge. You will still have to use the messenger to get things to the Judge if you're in a hurry. Also be reminded that the Judge DOES NOT get most pleadings in King County Superior Court cases. The Notice of Appearance goes to the Judge as a courtesy copy (see Case Schedule, one of the last pages - not the page with all the dates on it). You really don't think the Judge reads it do you? It is for the Judge's assistant to put on the computer system so they know your attorney is in the case. The Judge gets motion documents and some pretrial documents, but that's about it. Don't send discovery, complaints, answers, and the like to Judges unless your attorney specifically tells you to.
Warning Re Case Schedule Pretrial Deadlines for King County Superior Court.
Watch out for the Order On Pretrial Conference which comes after the pretrial conference about 30 days prior to trial. This document is issued by the Judge and it frequently changes Case Schedule deadlines such as the deadline for jury instructions and the trial brief. Technically the local rules indicate these are both due 5 calendar days prior to trial, however, most Order(s) On Pretrial Conference deadlines change these to being due 5 court days prior to trial (not 5 calendar days).
Don't forget to use a declaration of mailing if you mail pleadings in Superior Courts.
State rule indicates that a declaration or affidavit of mailing must be completed (put at the end of the document instead of at the top) if you mail documents to counsel. The stamp or language goes on the original document at the end after the attorney signature. The court considers mailed documents received 3 days after you mail them. However, if the 3rd day lands on a weekend or holiday, the court considers the document received the next business day, for example on Monday or Tuesday. So if something is due on Monday (and Monday is not a holiday), mail it Thursday. Thursday is day one. Friday is day two. Saturday/Sunday - do not count. Monday is day three. No matter when they actually receive it, the court considers it received Monday (as long as there is mail delivery Monday).
How to count deadlines in Superior Courts. See CR 6.
- Any deadline which is 7 days or over, count holidays and weekends in the deadline.
- Any deadline which is 6 days or under, count judicial days only.
Only CR 56 tells you to bump forward nearer the hearing date if the deadline lands on a non-judicial day for motions for summary judgment. Therefore, if you have a deadline which must be met and it's 7 days or over, you may land on a non-judicial day when counting. Always go backwards on the deadline as the rule applying to this deadline may say to do it "not less than 30 days"...... which means you cannot bump forward. Response to Requests for Admissions tip: always bump the deadline backwards to Friday if the 30th day for the response lands on a non-judicial day. For example, the answer to RFA is due in 30 days, and it comes out to Saturday. Get it out Friday, not Monday. Otherwise it is late. Go backwards when in doubt, not forward, except with a MSJ. The MSJ rule is the only one which explicitly tells you to bump forward on the 11 and 5 calendar day deadlines, when applicable.
More on How to Count Deadlines. Do not count the day of the event – CR 6 – Time Rule.
Don’t count the day of receipt when sending out a document, except civil motions documents. When you send out interrogatories, after the return copy comes back and you know when they received them, don’t count the day of receipt in the 30 days. Start counting day l of the 30 days on the day after they are received. Start counting the deadline for the answer to the complaint as being the day after the defendant was served.
Exception to not counting day of receipt – civil motions.
When sending out a civil motion document, the day of the event is the hearing day and this is what is not counted.
- King County Non-Dispositive Civil Motion Deadlines:
- Moving party docs due 6 court days prior to hearing
- Opposition documents due 2 court days prior to hearing by noon
- Reply docs due by moving party l court day prior to hearing by noon
- When calculating these deadlines, don’t count the hearing date, but do count the day of receipt of the papers.
Don’t get them out early to opposing counsel as you’ll be giving them more time to get their job done. That’s one reason attorneys wait until the last minute to get things out the door – STRATEGY.
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