Notice to Admit
What is a Notice to Admit?
New York’s CPLR contains several discovery devices. “Discovery” is the period before trial in which parties attempt to determine which facts they agree upon, and which facts are in dispute. The various discovery devices allow the parties to do this.
In order to understand what exactly the Notice to Admit does, it may help to compare it with the Interrogatory, which is more familiar to most people. With Interrogatories, parties send a list of questions to their opponents. Opponents then provide answers to those questions. The answers help the parties clarify their differences with regard to matters of fact. With the Notice to Admit, rather than sending questions, parties simply send a list of facts that they believe to be true. The Notice to Admit requests that the opponent confirm or deny the truth of each of the listed facts.
With regard to documents or photographs, the Notice may simply ask the opponent to affirm or deny the genuineness of documents, or the accuracy of photographs or videos. But the notice may also inquire about facts that are not contained in documents, photographs, or videos. If this is the case, the party sending the Notice to Admit must have some reasonable belief that the listed fact is true. Additionally, parties may not include facts likely to be a matter of substantial dispute at trial. For instance, if a party is sued for breach of contract, a Notice to Admit cannot include an assertion that the defendant breached the contract terms, since this is the basis of the lawsuit. This fact would have to be established at trial.
As long as the fact is not one of substantial dispute, parties must deny the facts contained in a Notice to Admit within twenty days. A party’s silence will be deemed an admission. This means that parties with no objection to a list of facts contained in a Notice to Admit need not reply.
Litigation Attorneys in Nassau County
If you have questions about this or other legal issues, call the Law Firm of Vaughn, Weber & Prakope, PLLC at 516-858-2620 to schedule a free consultation.
*Contributions to this article have been made by Jason Mays, J.D.
Deposition Preparation
Depositions are part of the discovery process, which takes place during the pretrial portion of a lawsuit. Discovery occurs after the case has been filed and officially begun with the court, but before the trial.
The purpose of the discovery process is to expose all the facts the parties will be relying on to make their case. Exposing the facts in this way encourages settlement, which in turn lightens courts’ administrative burden. Facts may be established by documents, photographs, audio or video recordings, or other sources. Any party to a lawsuit can request any sources or documents that may be relevant to the lawsuit from the opposing counsel. With a few exceptions, each party is obligated to provide any documents or sources that are requested.
Often parties will not be able to rely on documents or recordings to establish facts. Instead, they may have to use witness testimony to support their claims. This evidence is subject to discovery as well. Just as a party may inspect the documents and recordings the opposing party will be relying on, a party may “preview” witness testimony by holding a deposition.
A deposition is similar to a witness examination at trial. An attorney – either an opposing attorney, or the attorney of the person being deposed (or, the “witness”) – will ask an individual certain questions, which are recorded under oath.
This process will not only expose testimony. Because depositions are recorded and delivered under oath, deposition transcripts may sometimes be introduced at trial. For instance, deposition transcripts may be used to establish facts if a witness will not be able to attend a trial, or may be used to contradict a witness’s testimony at trial. For these reasons, parties should not show up at depositions unprepared. Witnesses that answer questions inaccurately – even by making honest mistakes – risk undermining their credibility. It is important that witnesses, with the help of their attorneys, try to anticipate which events they will be questioned about, review the information they have, and clarify, to the extent possible, their knowledge with regard to those events.
If you have any questions about this or other legal issues, call the Law Firm of Vaughn, Weber & Prakope, PLLC at (516) 858-2620 to schedule a free consultation.
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