Know the law and how it applies to each of defendant’s argumentsīy the time you receive a summary-judgment motion, you will likely already have a good understanding of the legal issues involved in your case. Read it, and read it closely as soon as you receive the motion. If you wait and read the papers a week or two before your opposition is due, it is highly unlikely that you will be able to obtain all the information you need to successfully oppose the motion.
SUMMARY JUDGMENT CODE
Under section 437c of the Code of Civil Procedure, you do have the luxury of time to prepare your opposition however, you must use this time wisely and determine if there are depositions that need to be taken, discovery that needs to be served, and experts that need to be retained. If you do not read the motion and understand the issues it raises, you will be handicapped in properly opposing it down the road.
Do not put it aside and try to deal with it later because you think you have so much time before your opposition is due. On the day you receive the motion, read it. Read and review a summary-judgment motion immediately Through trial and error, and lots of very long nights, I believe that I have determined the best way to approach this task in a way that simplifies the lives of not only the attorneys writing the opposition, but also the staff members trying to prepare the opposition documents for filing. Over the past several years, I estimate that I have prepared at least forty oppositions to summary-judgment motions. The fear is not only the fact that it is a dispositive motion, but also that filing an opposition to a summary judgment motion is extremely time consuming and can become a technical nightmare. One of the most dreaded documents to find in the mail is a Motion for Summary Judgment.
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