3 replies to this topic

[rogerisright69]

OK, In a civil case I was served with request for admissions consisting of 16 statements of those 16 I responded to 9 of them with the standard Admit/Deny or Admit in Part and Deny in part etc etc etc. the other 7 I invoked my 5th Amendment privilege. I responded in the appropiate time frame and the plaintiff's attorney filed a motion to determine sufficiency of the 7 statements where I invoked the privilege. We had a hearing and the judge took it underadvisement and 3 weeks later I received her decision which said that my use of the 5th Amendment was not well taken and she ordered that all admissions were deemed admitted. Here are my questions:

1. How do I get clarification as to whether that means ALL 16 admissions or just the 7 being challenged?

2. If it is all 16 of them including the 9 that were answered properly ...can the judge even do that?

The attorney on the other side seems to think it means all 16 are admitted which would end the case as the 9 statements went directly to the elements of the lawsuit. If it means all 16 are admitted then the case is over ...

help

[adjusterjack]

I suspect that the judge's ruling applies to the 7 that were challenged.

As to how you get clarificaiton, you file a Motion for Clarification.

Here's a couple of observations:

1 - That you even raised the 5th amendment in a civil case means you are in over your head and need a lawyer.

2 - Going up against a lawyer without one of your own is like bringing a rubber knife to a gunfight. You'll be the one to end up on the ground bleeding. And the other party's attorney has just drawn first blood.

[Tax_Counsel]

I've not read the order and thus cannot comment on whether it applies to all the requests for admissions or just those to which you claimed the 5th amendment privilege against self-incrimination and cannot comment on whether the ruling is ambigious at all in that regard. If you want clarification, I suggest you start by having the order reviewed by an attorney. Then if he/she says it’s unclear, file a motion with the court to clarify the order.

Note that in a civil case, making even a good claim to the 5th amendment privilege against self-incrimination can result in the court deeming that the answer would be adverse to you and thus could be used against you. It is not like the criminal case in which the defendant's proper claim to the privilege cannot be used against him. This is something that a lot of pro se litigants don’t seem to understand. Thus, if by making the 5th amendment claims you were hoping to avoid having those items admitted, that wasn’t likely to work. If the claims were not well supported, the judge may not take kindly to that. In my experience, unfounded claims to the 5th amendment privilege are viewed by judges as an attempt to play games with the system. The result of that can be a sanction of some sort, like deeming ALL the requests for admissions as admitted by you. The extent to which the court may do that depends on the court rules for the jurisidiction in which this is being litigated. Since you did not specify the jurisdiction, no one here can tell you what the court’s power is in that regard.

[pg1067]

How do I get clarification as to whether that means ALL 16 admissions or just the 7 being challenged?

Under the circumstances, it seems obvious. However, I obviously haven't read the court's order, so if you think it's not, you should file a motion for clarification. Whether there's a simpler way depends on the laws and court rules in your unidentified state.

If it is all 16 of them including the 9 that were answered properly ...can the judge even do that?

The judge can do anything that he has done, but I suspect that's not really what you intended to ask. If your intent was to ask about legality, that depends on the laws of your unidentified state.