B-How To Be Proactive Not Active 2024 PDF

B-How to Be Proactive Not Active 62m p2 Mon, Dec 02, 2024 10:39AM 1:02:55 **SUMMARY KEYWORDS** proactive discovery, legal staff, trial paralegal, litigation manager, legal support, trial attorney, discovery process, record requests, requests for admissions, deposition preparation, medical exami...

B-How to Be Proactive Not Active 62m p2 Mon, Dec 02, 2024 10:39AM 1:02:55 **SUMMARY KEYWORDS** proactive discovery, legal staff, trial paralegal, litigation manager, legal support, trial attorney, discovery process, record requests, requests for admissions, deposition preparation, medical examination, expert designation, supplemental interrogatories, discovery deadlines, jury fees B-How to Be Proactive Not Active 62m p2 ======================================= The seminar, \"How to Be Proactive Not Reactive,\" focused on effective discovery practices in legal cases. Key points included the importance of obtaining complete records, responding to record requests promptly, and using requests for admissions (RFAs) and special interrogatories strategically. The speakers emphasized the need for thorough preparation, including verifications and declarations, and highlighted the significance of meeting deadlines and using technology to streamline processes. They also discussed the importance of maintaining professional relationships with opposing counsel and the benefits of being proactive in discovery to avoid last-minute rushes and potential errors. Transcript ---------- Action Items ------------ - \[ \] Obtain any missing records directly from medical providers or third parties. - \[ \] Carefully draft responses to requests for admissions, including explanations for denials. - \[ \] Review deposition transcripts to identify additional discovery needs. - \[ \] Designate experts early and ensure they are properly listed on the 2034 form. - \[ \] Maintain a production log of all documents produced and received. - \[ \] Consider using vendors to assist with document organization and production, if needed. 00:01 Good day, and thank you for joining us for today\'s seminar, web live program, Cala legal staff webinar, a discovery playbook, how to be proactive, not reactive. You may submit questions over the web throughout the program by typing them into the Q and A pod, and we will address them at the appropriate time. Today\'s sponsor is doctors own liens, and we\'ll Pause for a brief word from our sponsor. You 01:00 Luis, thank you. Our moderators today are Lupe Flores and Rose Gutierrez. Lupe Flores is a senior trial paralegal with over 20 years of experience in litigation. Ms. Flores started with the law firm of Chernoff bedarette and at COVID area LLP in 2009 where she works closely with the attorneys of the firm and also aspects of the litigation process from inception through trial. Miss Flores is a paralegal member of the Consumer Attorneys Association of Los Angeles and the Consumer Attorneys of California. She has spoken at several seminars. Miss Flores was a member of the 2017 inaugural Cala legal staff committee, and is the current chair of the legal support staff group in 2018 she was awarded Cal is prestigious Presidential Award for her contributions to the organization. Rose Gutierrez is the litigation manager at the law firm of Michaels in Luis, which represents catastrophically injured plaintiffs throughout California in medical malpractice and personal injury actions. For the last 16 years, Rose has overseen and managed the firm\'s litigation assistance in all cases that are in active litigation, and has worked closely with the attorneys in the formulation and implementation of case strategy. Rose has presented at caoc seminars, local Cala seminars, and at the Cala Las Vegas attorneys conference, as well as published articles in advocate magazine. Rose is currently the vice chair of the legal staff support group. I will now turn the call over to our moderators. Please go ahead. 02:54 Hi, thank you. I have the pleasure of introducing one of our speakers, Derek Tran. Derek is the founding attorney of the trans firm, which focuses on PI and employment law in 2018 Derek was part of the trial team that secured a \$2.2 million sexual harassment verdict. He serves as a board member for Cala and Consumer Attorneys of California. He is on several committees for both organizations, and is the current vice chair for Cal is new lawyers. Derek was awarded the 2018 call a Presidential Award and the 2019 caoc Presidential Award of Merit. He is a graduate of caoc Leadership Academy and call his plaintiff Trial Academy. Derek is also a decorated veteran who served during the 2003 Iraqi conflict, welcome Derek. 03:44 Good morning everyone. It\'s 03:45 good to see you. I 03:47 hope everyone\'s having a good week. So far, I have the pleasure of introducing Sergio Bucha. Sergio is a litigation and trial attorney at the Law Offices of Mauro Fiore, where he represents individuals against corporations and employment and personal injury cases. Serge is a graduate of California Western School of Law. He\'s a member of the American Bar Association, American Association for Justice, California Employment Lawyers Association, Consumer Attorneys Association of Los Angeles, where he served as co chair of the new Lawyers Committee, and he\'s a proud board member of the trial lawyers charities. He\'s a graduate of the Consumer Attorneys Association of Los Angeles, plaintiff Trial Academy in 2017 and in 2019 Sergio was selected as a national trial lawyer top 40, under 40 and Super Lawyers, rising star Georgia, practices both in state and federal courts throughout California, we are so excited to hear from the guys. So with that, take it away. Good afternoon, everybody. 04:55 Hi. Good seeing you again. Thank you. Welcome back to discovery part two. We\'re going to launch the PowerPoint right now, 05:14 and before we get started, big thanks to doctors on lean for sponsoring today. Okay? 05:24 Just one sec. Sorry, guys, okay, 05:31 Discovery part two, litigation time, 05:36 all right, California, sip code section 413, in determining what inferences to draw from the evidence or facts in the case against a party, the trier of fact may consider, among other things, the party\'s failure to explain or to deny by his testimony such evidence or facts in the case against him, or his willful suppression of evidence relating there to if such be the case. So we wanted to start with this, because discovery is so powerful. It is the evidence that we are obtaining for our clients and we are obtaining to prosecute our case. So when we make a mistake where we accidentally suppress evidence that\'s going to affect the case, same thing for the defendants when they do something like that. We want to make sure that we are always alert and paying attention to these type of stuff, because it\'s so important. As you can see from Cal ZIP Code section 413, 06:35 the last thing you want in bringing a case to a jury is a jury instructions saying that there may have been woeful suppression of evidence on on your side, so really, really important that we focus on getting the right evidence in. And we\'re going to tell you how to obtain it. Yep. So today you\'re learning the magic on today\'s agenda, we\'re going to be talking about obtaining records and responding to record requests, continuing with propounding last time we went over stage one, we\'ll go through stage two and beyond, how to formulate our responses. We\'ll talk about depositions, about experts and some other significant findings that have come to light this year that we need to all be paying attention to. You will all receive the the PowerPoint in a PDF, so you\'ll have the different code sections. Today is going to be a little bit more coding than it was last time, because there\'s a lot of important code sections that need to be understood and followed in the discovery process. So you got served subpoena records. There\'s a lot of times where you\'ll get a third party who sends over a laundry list of medical providers or other other third parties that they need that the defense is requesting records from. So you need to know your file. You need to review the file and see what you have and what you don\'t have, and get the things that you need to get that you don\'t have already. You want to obtain any records that are missing. And there are certain times where it could be more cost efficient and quicker for your client to get the records directly from the doctors, for example, films on a CD. If there is an MRI or CT scan, your client can get those for you, have them do a little bit of the work, have them be involved. It really brings them in to the case. Knows that you\'re working together, and it kind of creates a better bond between you and your client moving forward in the litigation. Another thing is, when you get those records subpoenas, make sure that they\'re not over broad, you know, if they\'re asking for records for 20 years or all records, you know, and there\'s a specific injury you need to make sure you limit that and protect your clients interests. Yeah, one of the things I do for medical records on my employment cases, I\'ll 09:02 like agree with counsel on the other side that they\'ll stipulate to a first look so that we get the documents before they even get it that way. If there\'s anything in there that\'s embarrassing to our client, or super confidential or something like that, we can redact it and, you know, notify them that there\'s privacy issues, and we keep that out. I love Sergio is meme. Here it goes with, if you want respect, you got to take it, you got served. So for me, it\'s, if you want documents, you got to take it, you need to serve them with those subpoenas, alright? So remember that those these documents are so important. 09:40 Well said 09:42 round two. Okay, 09:44 so we talked about propounding a little bit in the last session. This one, we\'re going to go a little bit more in depth with RFAs. You know, you always that\'s request for admissions. You always want to send the four logs you want to do 30 day. From the data was received. You got your 20, 3280 B motion for admission to be deemed admitted. You got your special rugs. And please keep in mind with special interrogatories, if you have 25 or more, you need that declaration, production of documents, there\'s 10:24 Sergio, anything else? 10:25 So with the production documents, we\'re now in round two, right? So we\'ve already sent the first step, and now we\'ve presumably done some depositions. We know what other documents are out there that we need. So if you\'ve already had more than 25 special interrogatories, but you need to ask more questions, because there\'s more info out there. Make sure you have the declaration with the production of documents. If you know you had a PMQ in and they didn\'t bring everything, you found out that there may now be a video, or there may be some sweep sheets, or there may be something else that\'s there, make sure you include that in your second round of production documents, so that you get those in. Talking about the RFAs. RFAs, you know, they can admit, deny or whatever, but you also want them to explain there\'s a laundry list of things under 17.1, in general, interrogatories and then employment interrogatories that they need to respond to. So you know what facts they have and why they\'re admitting or denying to any of your requests for admission. It\'s super, super important that you send that along. If you don\'t send it with the RFAs, you lose out on all that really, really valuable info. 11:29 And at this point, if I could chime in real quick on the RFA, since this is after the first round and you\'ve already had depositions, you can use the RFAs for the genuineness of documents. You can detach documents that they\'ve produced, whether you know in discovery or a PMQ, so you can authenticate that it is the document, and lay foundation for down the road. And then, just real quick, going back to the special rod. It\'s 35 with in state, and 25 in federal. So it\'s, it\'s been all second round. What\'s really good, and you saying about depositions is, I always go through depot transcripts for witnesses, pm cues, and that\'s where you get your contention wrongs. You can build off of that. So I think it\'s really important when you know you\'re going through discovery, that you\'re not only looking at the documents and the responses that come in, but once the Depo transcripts start coming in, a lot of that information can go into a second set of special rod 12:32 Yeah. Luis brings up a really good point on when your lawyer is deposing someone, it\'s a good practice to probably ask that lawyer after the deposition, hey, is there anything else I need to do as far as propounding some extra discovery? You know, they just went through that deposition. They might have some stuff in their mind that they can just shoot at you right away, absolutely review the deposition transcript when it comes in, and then ask those further and request those further documents as necessary, right? 13:03 And I totally agree, Derek, especially when the lawyer comes back, even if they\'re not coming back to the office, touch base with them. Give them a call on their cell phone while it\'s fresh in their mind. You can take your notes, because then, you know, lawyers juggle 1000 balls, and then it\'s gonna it\'s gonna leave their mind, and that\'s going to be it. So you want to touch base with them right after the depot to see what other discovery needs to be conducted. 13:32 So first steps in preparing the discovery responses. Discovery is governed by California Code of Civil Procedure, 2030 through 2033 know these codes, know what they say, and know why they are so important. Okay, responses need to be sent with verifications. Make sure that you\'re you have verifications from your client, and you\'re getting those out along with the documents, with the responses with the RFAs, with whatever you\'re responding to. And so just a moment ago, we talked about, you know what? How many questions we\'re asking? Are we asking? 2535 80, 100 whatever it might be. Make sure that you understand what needs to be in the declaration, and that a declaration is drafted along with those discovery requests, and that we hold the same thing accountable to the defendants, that if they\'re asking, you know, 3536 or 100 or 200 requests or special interrogatories that They have that declaration there, hold them to it. Keep in mind that the verifications must be sent. They hold the same oath, same force, in effect as an oath or admonishment in a deposition, and that your client understands that what they\'re signing, because when they\'re asked in depot whether or not they sign. The verification, whether or not they know what that means, they need to be able to say unequivocally yes. 15:05 So no verification is essentially no response. But are there times, Sergio, that you\'ve sent out just objections without verifying? Unfortunately, yes. 15:15 Sometimes we\'ve lost a client, and there\'s discovery. It\'s happened before, unfortunately, and so we had to send objections. And pure objections is important because you need to preserve them, but you don\'t need to have those objections verified. That\'s the only time that we\'ve ever sent that out. So 15:36 we\'re not promoting this. We\'re just saying if worst case scenario, you\'ve lost touch with your client and responses are due, then you probably just want to buy a little bit more time by sending the objections. Preserve 15:51 them. Super important. 15:55 Okay, respond to rogs. So we\'ve already sent out the form rugs to your clients. This is where, you know, in the beginning stage one, we talked about giving your client the homework, giving them those templates to fill out. So you\'re going to have all of these information already in your hands, and it\'s going to be that much easier for you to feel fill everything out and address those issues with your clients. They might not know what they\'re filling out. It might be questionable. You\'re gonna pick up the phone, you\'re gonna call them, you\'re gonna get the them to clarify for you. So that is pretty much done and easy. Once you do something like that, you don\'t want to ask for any type extensions. I\'m a firm believer that when it comes to responding to any type of discovery, we are timely with it. It shows, my opinion, again, is it shows a little bit of weakness, like you\'re unorganized. You\'re disorganized when you miss deadlines or you ask for extensions. So for the most part, unless there\'s a overriding, super important reason why someone\'s sick, you know, I always try to tell my team to not miss any type of discovery deadline and never to ask for extension. Now that being said, Do we grant extensions and do we ask for extensions? Of course, things happen in life, and you have to, and we are very I tell my team, we are very courteous. We\'re very professional. We don\'t go with no, you may not have it. We always grant them a one time, first time extension, and then, depending on the subsequent request for extensions, we will ask them, Why do you need more time? But you know, we try to be as courteous as possible. Sergio, anything do we chat? 17:37 I think it\'s important to to have that professional courtesy and that rapport with opposing counsel, with their their legal staff, their secretaries, whoever it might be that you\'re talking to both attorneys and staff, there needs to be that report. But also, you know, hold them accountable. You\'re going to want to hold yourself accountable. So hold them accountable to another issue is under 20, 30.300 C, that\'s what governs over motions to compel. And there\'s been some issues in the past that we\'ve had with meeting and meeting and conferring on requests for either further responses or supplemental responses. It\'s really important to read that code section, because oftentimes the defendants will try and bring a motion to compel after their initial deadline, and if there wasn\'t a stipulated extension to bring their motion to compel based on the date for your further responses, we read the code to say that they\'ve waived their right to bring a motion to compel on those responses because they should have requested an additional time, not just set an arbitrary date for within when to serve those further responses so that they then had, you know, seven days, 10 days, whatever they felt they needed to bring that motion. So read that code section, 20, 30.300 18:54 C, yeah. And keep in mind, when we talk about these discovery drafts that you\'re providing for your attorney, I think I mentioned the first time at the last month\'s seminar is that you want to make sure you give your attorneys enough time to review this. Don\'t give them a stack of 500 discovery responses and documents to review the day before it\'s due. It\'s not going to turn out well, they\'re going to be super upset. I usually ask for myself a week in advance, so that way, if there\'s any edits and updates that needs to be made, there\'s plenty of time, right? Rose and rose and Lupe are laughing because they know, I mean, but that happens sometimes, though, and we get it and but if you keep us informed, hey, I\'m super overloaded with work, I won\'t be able to get you these discovery responses for a day or two before it\'s due. That\'s great. You\'re keeping us, but when you slam all the Discover our desk. Oh, by the way, it\'s due by the end of today. Now we got to drop everything, and do not appreciate that, and 19:50 send it in chunks. Sometimes, if you\'re done with frogs and you still need to do RFPs or RFAs, whatever, whatever comes in when, when we\'re dealing with a high. Load, you know, just get it to us as soon as you can, and it\'s, it\'s done, so that we can start reviewing it and have it done in time, so we don\'t have to ask for those extensions 20:09 guys, you know, it\'s, it\'s, it\'s a courtesy to the attorneys. I tried to do a week as well. But like you said, sometimes that\'s a wish list, but you keep on discussing issues. So if there\'s, you know, an issue with one of the responses, you raise that as soon as you know. But wait until last minute doesn\'t only add to your plate, but it opens the door for error. And that\'s where you know you\'re rushing through things, things are missed, and it\'s just, it\'s that\'s when mistakes happen. So that\'s definitely why you know main reason to avoid because as plaintiffs, it\'s our burden to put the case forward, and it\'s our burden to lay everything out in discovery, and you want to make sure that you\'re doing everything as accurately as possible. Waiting to the last minute just just opens a room for error, opens the door for error, 21:00 absolutely and on that point, Lupe, I will say that that goes on with the next slide, that the rule in our office is that the rule for discovery responses is always do it right, and then you only do it once right if you do it wrong, if you you know, don\'t have the information, if you\'re going to wait to supplement if you send boilerplate objections, you know you Don\'t want to get those meet and confer letters in the mail. You want to be able to send it off and, you know, kiss it goodbye, and you know that you did a great job. It\'s verified that all the documents are there. They\'re based in whatever it is. It\'s done, and it\'s done right? It saves so much more time on the back end, where you can, you know, start working on the next thing, instead of worrying about now having to respond to a meet, confer letter and fix your responses. So one really important thing with regard to responding to requests for production specifically, is reading the code. 20, 31.230, about what you must state with regard to the apps and surprises of documentation. You know, did you do a thorough search? You know, putting this specific language in your responses is required per code, and even if you have sent all the documents, you base them everything. But if you don\'t put this in, they can meet and confer about it. And it\'s a potential for discovery sanctions if we don\'t respond per code, so make sure that you have that in there. 22:34 I\'ll take this opportunity to make a little comment. One of the things that irks me the most, and last session, I focused a lot on good versus Great. I\'m just going to focus on competent versus good on this one comment. So when you put together these drafts and these responses, you know, do yourself a favor. Spell check. Okay, go such a long way the spelling of certain things. How, you know, check the footnote. Sometimes the case is wrong and the client\'s name is wrong irks me, and I get very bothered by that so that. And that\'s just like competent to good paralegal. I\'m not even talking about great, you should already master that. 23:21 Okay? Responding to requests for admission. We use this format on our responses to request for admission. You know, it has little boxes, and you can check which one applies to your response, admit, deny. Admit. It\'s the following effects denies, the remainder of the admission, or others or other information that you need to give there and then, like I mentioned before, under 17.1 we got to make sure that we respond as thoroughly as possible to the subsections, so that we are laying out our case. Lupe, you mentioned about, you know it\'s our burden to lay this out, and you know it is sometimes a lot of work, especially when we have 50, 6070, RFAs, and we have to, and we\'re denying every single one of them, but we need to put in that work. We need to make sure that the answers are there, that they\'re correct, that we have the company documents, that we have the witnesses, the individuals that have knowledge of it, because it really builds our case, and it shows the defendants that we know what we\'re talking about, that we\'re competent and that we have facts that favor our 24:23 case. Yeah. And then sometimes we focus so much on codes and the work, but we forget about the relationships that we have to have with the other side. So when you are dealing with the other paralegal from the other firm, it\'s good to build that report. It\'s good to build and why do we want that? It\'s because you need to sometimes ask them, and you should be asking them for the Word documents, for these things, so that way you just have to copy and paste and don\'t have to retype all of the questions, back the interrogs, back into your document. So it\'s so much better when you have that friendly working relationship, professional relationship with other side to help you and your job and to be less stressed 24:59 and. Doug, we\'ll touch on that in a second. But there\'s been new legislation that says that they must provide it. If there\'s a request for the Word documents, they must provide that to you. So ask for it right away, just like a motion for summary judgment, you request a separate statement in a Word format, request the discovery in a Word format, so you can get those implemented into your responses. 25:21 All right, we\'re doing objections. Objecting when the document exists, I\'m sorry, objecting when no document exists is in bad faith, and that\'s a be home case that\'s listed on there. Consider responding, not withstanding objections. So what happens is sometimes you want to preserve your objections, so you object, and then you say, notwithstanding said objections, plaintiff or responding party answers as follows, and you provide those things. You know, I think the beyond case makes it very clear that when you make these bad faith objections, you\'re going to get in trouble for that, your attorney is going to get in trouble for that. They\'re going to get sanctioned. To get sanctions for that. So you want to be very careful and not just have boiler plate objections on there, and definitely do not have boiler plate objections in the beginning of the response to other interrogatories. I think the code is very clear that each of the objections need to be specific, specifically stated in the interrogatories that you\'re objecting to. 26:24 And we\'ve looked at some code sections here that govern over the different types of discovery. And now there\'s there\'s always common objections that we use time and time again. It\'s important to have a little cheat sheet, whether it be a Word document or something that\'s printed out. We have a Word document on at our office that we use to be able to copy and paste from the common ones that we use. There\'s actually a really great article from the advocate from july 2009 and so it\'s a little old, but it\'s still really great. It\'s, it\'s, it\'s by top Todd Bloomfield, Luis de armas and Bill Carnes, and it just goes out and lists a bunch of discovery objections that are very common, and the case law sites that you that you can throw in there, it is a little outdated, so especially since the 2020, legislation has come down, and there\'s additional rules and additional requirements make sure that you verify but it\'s a really great tool to get you started if you don\'t have something already. Another issue is privilege. Privilege can be waived if you don\'t assert it. So if there is a privilege objection that is necessary because they\'re asking for things that are privileged, make sure that you make that objection. Last time we talked about having a privilege log for documents, this is where it comes in handy. I don\'t send it when I assert privilege, but if Council asks me for a privilege log, I want to know that I have it ready and that I\'m not objecting the privilege if there isn\'t actually a privilege document, because then you just are running around in circles and they\'re like, Well, why did you object to privilege? If there\'s nothing privileged here. You don\'t want to get caught in that Ehud case where you\'re objecting frivolously without actually doing your due. 28:13 Alright guys. So in January 2020, there\'s some legislation that changed SC 370 responding party take extra step to identify which requests the produce document response to. So that\'s before you just do like a huge document dump, right? You just give them all these documents, but now you actually have to identify, based on the big stamping which of those documents are responsible to which interrogatories they\'ll do the same for you. So it\'s a little bit more work, but it\'s it\'s going to make everyone\'s life easier. And I think it also makes the judges life easier when you they have these identified responses to a specific interrogatory, a, with a, b1, 349, this what we discussed. Earlier electronic versions of discovery must be produced to the opposing party upon request. So what is that, if there are electronic data related to email or text messages, they can request that, and you have to give it to them under this AB 1349, SB 17, this allows for the use of federal discovery procedures in state court. So if, for whatever reason, your lawyer prefers to use federal discovery process, you are allowed to do so under SD 17, right? This also goes for further, that there\'s sanctions. If you are you do not provide the responses and before these sanctions were what would you say 29:44 they were reportable to the bar, really, but, but 29:47 now they are now, so it\'s a little bit scarier for us as lawyers. A judge 29:51 has a discretion, so at that anytime there\'s a discovery motion and the judge decides that you\'ve missed the attorney has misused a discussion. Reprocessed in any way. It doesn\'t matter if they\'re sanctioned. You know, \$100 or \$5,000 the judge, at his his or her discretion, can report it to the bar within 30 days of that motion. In addition to that, there\'s also a a availability of a judge to fine an attorney, \$2,500 for misuse of the discovery process. So be very, very, very careful with doing your due diligence, making sure that the responses are per code. We talked last time about base stamping documents early on when we get them. This is why now you have everything in front of you. They should be base stamped. They should already be, you know, titled whatever they are in your folders, and now you\'re making your life that much easier. Now you don\'t have to redo all the work you\'ve done it already. So maintaining clean discovery from the beginning, from the inception that we went over last month through this process, is going to help it be so much more streamlined. And hopefully, you know, using these tools will really help you and your attorneys in your practice. So there was 31:07 a recent advocate article written by Stephanie Taft, February of this year, where she talks about a lot of these discovery sanctions and stuff like that. Very worth 31:17 reading. Yeah, all the new legislation is in there. It\'s really, really important to read as Cala members, you all have access to those so take a look at them, due dates and deadlines. So there are so many due dates and deadlines that we are operating by every day. You know we have discovery due dates. Derek touched on it earlier. You know, the 30 days to respond. And then, you know, is there additional time because of mailing electronic mail, you know, mail within California, outside of California. So know the code. It\'s CCP, 1013, and in that code, it lays out all of the different regulations for calendaring deadlines. So just make sure that you have those. Now, what happens when it falls on a Saturday, Sunday or holiday? 32:08 To me, we use the following business day. So California 32:11 rule of court, rule 110 32:14 is what\'s is what states that Saturday, Sundays are considered holidays, and it goes to the following business day. One really important thing is proofs of service. Proofs of service are just are not just documents that you know are sent willy nilly. They need to have the correct information on them. You know what date usually on proofs of service, there\'s at least two areas where the date is filled out. They better be the same date, and they better be the right date, and you better make sure that the defendant is sending you accurate proofs of service. Today. Everything\'s being sent over email because of COVID. Last week, Wendy, my assistant, she caught that they had actually put july 22 on the POS, but the actual date of service was July 29 so they were trying to get away with a whole week prior, because that was within the time that they had to serve the 2034 and they didn\'t do it in time. And she caught that, and had she not been diligent and caught that, we would have probably accepted it as is and calendared it wrong and gone forward. So make sure you pay attention to what is on the proof of service, and that you hold them accountable when they try and lie about when it was served. 33:34 Depositions. So 33:38 you want to make sure that you\'ve set depositions timely. Those those time frames are all on the California Code of Civil Procedure. Make sure you know when you need when the end of discovery is your calendaring all that. So you get those done and talk with your attorneys about when and who needs to be deposed. What order you want to depose them in how early you\'re sending out these deposition notices. It\'s really important to get these in time. Don\'t wait to get served with a motion for summary judgment to then, you know, depose your PMQ, do it early on in the case. Have a have a calendar. Have have a deadline within which, after getting an answer and after serving out discovery, when you\'re going to start getting those individuals, and especially the PMQs done. You know, 34:26 a good practice is to have your lawyers CC you and emails where they\'re discussing deposition scheduling. You know, I think it\'s very important that the paralegals involved, because they know the calendar. They know your schedule sometimes better than you. So when you have them in the loop on these things, they can chime in right away or tell you, Hey, that\'s a bad date, or there\'s something else going on that day. Keep them involved. Keep the paralegals involved. So if your attorney is not doing that, just ask them politely, hey, you might see seeing me. So I can be on top of all of these issues, though, at my. Firm before any deposition, we do, depo preps with our clients, you know, and they are required to come in they watch a video. And this video is a, you know, 3540 minute video. And it\'s just, it goes, goes over the basics of the deposition, what you should and you shouldn\'t say, No, it\'s, it provides them a very helpful way of just digesting what\'s what\'s going to happen to them. In addition to that, we provide all of the discovery responses, both what they provided and it is the defendants discovery responses. And I give them homework. I go before you come in for my Depop prep. You better have reviewed all of these discovery because you\'re going to be asked on these things. And if there\'s anything that a paralegal can do, the legal staff can do at this point to assist the attorney is just identifying any of those key documents that are going to make break and hurt your case. I mean, obviously, if it\'s, if it\'s good stuff, it\'s, you know, that helps your case. It\'s stuff that the lawyer is going to want when they depose the defendant. You know, chances are, if it\'s good stuff, the defendant\'s not going to ask your client about it, you know, if it helps your case, so they\'re just there to destroy your case. So anything you see bad write ups, you know, attendance records where they weren\'t coming in on time, or whatever it is, those things should be, you know, put to the attention of your attorney so that they\'re aware and they\'re not surprised. Chances are they\'re going to know about it, but it\'s that extra step that you took to to identify for your for your lawyer, where can we find that video? You know, I think we use YouTube, but if you guys, anyone wants it, they can contact me, and I\'ll figure a way how to how to get that video over to you guys. 36:37 I might. I don\'t schedule my own depositions. My legal secretary schedules all of my depositions, so I asked her to cc me on them so that I I just look at my calendar. I know where I need to be, and I go. I prepare. But I don\'t schedule anything, because even my personal calendar is shared with with with my legal secretary, because she This is my life, like I\'m a lawyer at you know, 1am 5am no matter what time it is, I need to be aware of what\'s going on the next day. I need to be prepared. And so if I have something personal, it\'s on my calendar, so my assistant knows not to book something on that day. But I don\'t. I don\'t book my own stuff. I leave it to her. She can book whenever, whatever she wants. It\'s totally fine with me. And another thing that is really important is when you draft depot notices draft the 1987 so that we can serve them with them at the depot. You know, we want to make sure that these people are going to appear at trial, and that the defense knows that we\'re serious about these witnesses and that they need to show up. So I think, I think I 37:39 have a tactic so I always serve them in front of their lawyer, obviously, and then they always look at it real quick. They look to the lawyer, they\'re like, what\'s that? And then I answer the question for them, for the lawyer, and I say, hey, that\'s your subpoena to the peer before a trial, and you\'re gonna have to be there every single day that the trials in session. And these are the dates. However you want to work with us, we\'ll put you on call, and then we will only call you in when we need you, maybe that day. So, you know, that\'s, that\'s what I do, and it\'s worked out very well for me. 38:08 And so one last thing is on witnesses, third party witnesses, specifically, you need to kind of think about, well, you know, do we really want to set a deposition of this favorable witness to us now, or do we maybe get a declaration, work with them to get something on paper, and then inevitably, the defendant is going to set their depot, and we get a free deposition to ask our questions, you know? So that that\'s a good tactic that we use. And I think you mentioned you do that too, Derek, to be able to get, you know, free deposition testimony, and if they don\'t oppose them, and we have a great declaration, you know that\'s that\'s really good for us. We can use it for mediation, we and we can make sure that our friendly witness is at trial and we know how they\'re going to 38:47 testify. Yeah, I think that tip works out well for like, the smaller firms, but big firms with unlimited, unlimited budgets, I\'m sure they probably want to take the deposition of that witness. That\'s what your lawyer wants Have at it. Go for it. 39:02 That\'s a good point. 39:06 All right. Medical exam is 39:08 that your doctor from this 39:11 morning? No. Medical examination. CCP, 20, 32.2230, a. So in employment cases, we never, ever, ever, outright agree to a medical examination. We do not, because why put your client through that if you don\'t have to? You know, in all of our cases, all of our employment cases, there\'s an emotional distress claim. So the medical examination is likely always going to be granted by the judge when they move to compel, but we do not, do not ever let them just willy nilly have the the examination. So with medical examination, examination, you can do three things. You agree outright, you can agree with modifications. Maybe you need to narrow the scope of that exam. Examination, and then what I do is I refuse to comply, and then we make them 40:05 compel us. Okay, you don\'t. 40:08 The problem with medical examination employment law is that it\'s so broad that they have access to all kinds of history and they can ask anything and everything under the sun with your clients, and God forbid, you know, they get into something that triggers more stress to your client. You don\'t want that, so you want to push that out as far as possible and make the judge require that you give the medical examination. 40:31 And the PI is a little different. Obviously, there\'s injuries we want them to assess. They might not have the most favorable outcome, but sometimes you\'d be surprised what the IME or DME is going to say about those injuries, but we don\'t really refuse to comply, but we usually try and modify and make sure that our clients rights are being preserved. And to that end, we always have a representative with them at their medical examination, usually a nurse observer. We usually have somebody there. We have a couple different people that we use regularly, that we trust, and that, you know, has reports done for us after, usually within a week, we get those reports from them so that we make sure that they\'re limited, that there\'s no medical history, no diagnostics, and they have someone there on their side. There\'s nothing better than having someone there with your client going through a medical examination from a doctor that they don\'t know. You know, touching them, asking them questions. I mean, this guy looks like a creep. Can you imagine, you know, walking into a doctor\'s office and not having anyone on your side? So it\'s really, really important that we protect our clients and that we make them feel 41:39 safe. Yeah, Sergio just irked me with this misspelling of explanation, my bad 41:48 spell check that leads 41:51 us to 41:55 designating experts. You know, especially when we\'re talking about psych, right? You probably want to designate an expert and have them look at the declaration of the defense medical examiner, right? What is he asking? What kind of tests does he want to do on your client? You know, even if you have a lot of experience, we might not know what the latest tests are, what what needs to be done, but a doctor is so thinking about designating experts early, or at least reaching out to the person that you\'re thinking about designating in the future is highly, highly important at this level to make sure that your clients rights are being protected. And what experts do you need? You know, in PI cases, do you really need a biomechanic? Do you need an accident recon? Do you need a safety engineer as a supremacist case, you know Who do you need, and when you do designate your 2034 you want to make sure that you list everybody under the sun, not just the doctor that performed, you know the surgery, but you know what nurses were there, who was the radiologist, anesthesiologist, all these people who may be important in testifying later on and trial, you don\'t want to waive that right To have them there as a as a treating physician. You don\'t need to pay them as an expert and have a retainer, but they need to be listed as a treating physician on your 2034 because now, with Sanchez and all these other cases, there\'s very specific things that experts can testify to at trial. So you want to make sure that if you need the doctor that that reviewed the MRI that they\'re on that list, so you can bring them in later on. That\'s a good point, 43:29 I think, with any time you\'re dealing with expert and designating it\'s a lot of money, this is something you always want to verify with your attorney to make sure it\'s who they want on the case the correct expert, it\'s the correct correct field that they want to designate in for the employment law. You know, we have three main experts. You know, we have an economist, we probably have a vocational rehab, and we have the doctor, you know, the therapist or the psychologist that treated our client, and it\'s very expensive to pursue experts in your case, so that\'s something you always want to check with your lawyer to make sure that they that\'s that\'s who they want and how they want to proceed. 44:20 Round three supplemental interrogatories. Now you can send a round three of special rogs or request for production, but we\'ve already gone through that, so I\'m calling this round three. This is supplemental. This is closer to trial date, usually, where you want to elicit later acquired information on interrogatories that you\'ve already propounded, right? So you want to then send this blanket supplemental interrogatory asking them to give you all the additional responses, all the additional information that they\'ve now uncovered since their initial response. Because under the code, there is no duty to supplement unless there\'s a. Request by the propounding party, okay? And so you can serve this three times. You can serve it twice before any trial setting conference, and then, oops, and then once again after a trial setting conference is had per code, okay, 45:17 what I do, sorry, Sergio, is, since there isn\'t any code that governs supplemental RFA on I look back at the RFA responses that I had previously served through discovery, and I\'ll do a new set on the ones where it says cannot admit or deny. I put now admit that and add a now before the request, and send it out with my supplemental rods and supplemental art piece. And that\'s next point Lupe, that 45:44 is perfect, exactly. That\'s That\'s amazing practice. Anything here? No, okay. 45:56 Deadlines, all right, discovery, deadlines. So many on here. I\'m not going to go over all of them, but you know, with limited civil cases, CCP 96 we can\'t, we don\'t handle them. We can extend by agreement. CCP 630, 1.5 last day to post jury fees. 25 days prior to trial. I mean, those are like the key dates that you have in mind. But you know, on this you have it for you to reference, and you can look at, I mean, Sergio, do you have anything to add to this? 46:28 Yeah, so you\'re all gonna get this PowerPoint. Basically, you needed to know what the deadlines are and calendar them in your software, whatever you use, and go backwards, work backwards from it. You\'ll see here we have, you know, the 2034, deadlines. You\'ll see we have, you know, the different non expert witnesses depositions, you know, last day to bring discovery motions. All these things need to be on there, because they\'re super, super crucial to bringing your case and meeting your burden. Okay, these aren\'t some I have in the past, had experiences where we don\'t keep track of these deadlines and we wait for the defendant to serve us, you know, with a 2034 demand, or, you know, serve supplemental discovery requests, and that just shouldn\'t be the practice we\'re trying to explain different processes and procedures we can implement to be more proactive and having these deadlines solidified for each and every case based on their trial date, based on the CMC deadline, or date the CMC statement deadline, whatever those are. They need to be somewhere and they need to be followed. They need to be met. We cannot skip out on these deadlines. It\'s super, super important. Jury fees. Derek went over it briefly. Jury fees. There\'s two times that you can serve jury fees by the sooner of 25 days before trial or by the first hearing, and so they need to be sent because, because if you don\'t pay your jury fees, even if the defendant does, the judge may say, well, the plaintiff hasn\'t paid their jury fees. So this is now set for a bench trial, and that will be the order, and then you\'re stuck, and you don\'t have the opportunity to go back in time and file those jury fees. So have a practice in your office to have those jury fees paid early. 48:23 So at my office, we usually not, usually, we always pay it before the CMC, so before the Case Management Conference that the jury fees are posted. Sometimes it\'s that morning of I would go in and I would pay it, and the judge always asks, Have jury fees been posted? And I go, yes, they have your honor just this morning or yesterday or whatever it is. So we take care of that at the very beginning. You don\'t want to waive that. 48:49 Here we have some more discovery deadlines for you, deposition deadlines, supplemental expert witness lists. If you get a 2034 from the defendants and you see that they added a bio mechanic expert and you didn\'t have one, you can still rectify that and designate somebody, but there is a deadline, so make sure you have those deadlines calendar, because you don\'t want to forgo your opportunity to designate someone to rebut that crucial testimony. You know you and your attorney may have made the decision not to designate a accident recon. But once you see that their 2034 has one, your attorney is probably going to ask you to make sure that you contact one and get someone designated to be able to 49:38 rebut it. So more discovery deadline. I hate PowerPoints where we just, like, throw so much information at you guys, but, you know, it\'s so important what we\'re talking about in discovery and everything is governed by these deadlines that we have to, you know, work our cases up on against, you know, so deadlines, see, we listed three more here. I. CCP, 1985 last day to subpoena consumer records. CCP, 1987 last day to compel attendance to trial without records. And then 2024 and last day to compel discovery experts, 15 days before the trial. So all important stuff. But what I would say is, in putting our PowerPoint together, I got a lot of help from, you know, past webinars and seminars, even one as early as the Las Vegas where LaDonna put together a PowerPoint. She had so much information on ladonna\'s from area sing 180 wing and trios. And, you know, there was so much information, and there\'s no way we can condense him and present on all of those deadlines in a one hour format. And these are the things that you should be looking back to. There\'s archives within Cala where you can get all of these PowerPoints and and these codes, and better yet, you might just Google them. But you know, some sometimes these PowerPoints have like, these little notes from the paralegal who put them together, or, in our case, the attorneys that can help you, you know, and I highly encourage you to check out the Cala archives for those things and articles and the advocate. We\'re 51:13 lucky enough to be members of this great organization that has resources for us out there. So use them, you know. Log in, go on the listservs, check out the document banks that you have access to, and get those documents, because they\'re super, super helpful and can give you a structure. And one thing I want to point out, if you look at the first word on each of these subsections, it says last day. That\'s the last day to do it. That\'s not when you do it. You can do it early. We talked about the 1987 serving them at that position. We don\'t have to wait to serve them on the last day. So implement strategies, implement something that works for you and your attorneys, to be able to make sure that these deadlines are met and that they\'re done swiftly and easily, in a way that you can keep track of everything. And I included this little comic here. It\'s a guy on his computer, and it says, Thank goodness you\'re here. I can\'t accomplish anything unless I have a deadline. And that\'s what it feels like in this practice. Often, every day, we\'re just, you know, meeting deadlines, meeting deadlines, meeting deadlines, trying to budget our time as best we can, to meet those. But if, hopefully, we\'ve given you some tools to implement processes to make it a little bit easier and and stay ahead of the deadline, moving forward on all your discovery in your cases. 52:36 So when you are proactive, and you\'re acting and thinking in a proactive way, you\'re just gonna make your life so much more easy, so much more efficient. You know, I don\'t know who watched suits, but how we put this picture of here Donna from suits. She\'s like the ultimate, ultimate pinnacle, like best paralegal ever, right? So 52:54 there\'s Donna\'s out there, but there\'s also donatellos. 52:57 That\'s true. There\'s no paralegals out there as well. Donatello is awesome, but you know that that\'s what we\'re getting at. 53:03 I think this is your career path that 53:05 you chose. This is the career that you are now in, and you are now kicking butt in and do it so that it\'s efficient, it\'s less stress for you. And how do you do that? It\'s just by being proactive. Don\'t wait to the last minute. Don\'t wait to the last day, and when the deadlines do, do it in advance, you know? And as you continue to do this in your practice, you\'re just going to get better and better and better, right? I mean, I don\'t think anyone\'s going to deny that, right? With more practice, the better you get, yeah, so that\'s my parting words. We\'re going to open up to some questions about five minutes, six minutes left, and it\'s a good time for anyone to address any questions to us. 53:45 Here\'s our info, whoever wants, and you\'ll get a copy of this so you can feel free to contact us anytime. 53:52 So there were two questions. One was about the article regarding objections. If you can say who I think it was, Todd Bloomfield, you said Sergio, 54:03 it was Lourdes, the Armis and Bill Carnes, yeah. And it was 2009 January, 54:10 I think February, 1009 from the advocate, yeah. 54:14 And then the other question is, what is the role requiring opposing counsel to produce discovery requests in Word format. 54:22 That was SB, 137, I think. 54:31 AB, 1349, sorry. NB, 1349, electronic versions of discovery must be provided to opposing party upon request. That\'s what that is, that\'s what that stands 54:43 for, okay? And I had, I wanted to raise a point on the RFPs identifying the Bates numbers and the requests, yep, when you\'re doing discovery. And it\'d be nice if we could only work on one case at a time, but we know that\'s not the case, right? We\'re juggling a bunch of. Cases. And ultimately what we\'re doing with discovery is setting ourselves up for trial, setting up the case for trial. So what I do is I do a production log of all documents that I\'ve produced and all documents that come in, dates, numbers, document, date, description, etc. It makes it easier down the road to be able to identify those in the responses, and then you can point them out and meet and confer letter. And then when it comes to depots, and it comes to pool documents for the attorney for depos, you can go back to that those production logs and easily find them your key documents. And eventually that turns into your exhibit list. So I think you multi tasking and trying to juggle all of these things is setting yourself up so you don\'t have to reinvent the wheel and go back and review the same set of documents multiple times. You want to try to minimize that as much as possible. Because, like I said, it\'s every step takes you to the final step, which is trial. So hopefully, by the time you get to trial, you have your production log that you\'re able to put together your chronology, your timeline and and know these documents like the back of your hand, as opposed to there\'s a deposition coming up. Let me search through this production again. It\'s just It definitely is more time efficient that way. Lastly, on I am ease on PI cases like surgery. You were saying you do want you know your orthos, your you know, your any doctors to see your client, right? But you want to make sure that it\'s limited to one. You want to make sure you respond to their ime notice and specific you know, setting forth your restrictions, your limitations, but also requesting a copy of the Experts report. Now this is different when you\'re doing a neuropsych evaluation, because you want to make sure that the testing that a neuropsych does is not done as close in time as your expert has done it. So there\'s certain testing. It\'s like an eight hour day of neuropsych testing and neuro psyches don\'t recommend that that\'s done within six months. So let\'s say you\'ve already had your neuro psych see your client and they\'ve done their testing. You get an IME demand for them three months later, you can meet and confer with them and say, Look, we have the testing. If you want to see the testing, or they\'re doing the testing, first, you\'re allowed to request that neuro psych testing from their expert. And there\'s I\'d have to look it up, but there was a really good article in the advocate about neuro psych examinations, the objections, the responses and the limitations, and I\'ll post it on the listserv, because I thought it was really useful, and I was able to contact the author, and she sent me the objection that they use, and that\'s something that we\'ve implemented in our office. So those are a couple things to keep in mind. 57:53 That\'s all you know. 57:54 One point on RFPs, a little tip for those of you that work at smaller firms. You know, there are some vendors out there that are very cheap, who can, like, help you with RFPs, like, for example, if you\'re up against deadlines and you\'re already working on two other cases and you just need someone to help you scan bait and then segregate those documents that\'s responsive to the interrogatories. There are vendors out there that I do it for cheaper than what your your attorney is paying you hourly. So don\'t tell your attorney that, so they can do that for you, and that helps you out. And just talk to your attorney. Be like, Hey, I\'m swamped. I need I need little assistant. I need someone help me out here. And you you can find that type of help. I\'ve done it before, and there\'s no shame in that. I mean, they just when you need help, you need help, and 58:42 I think that\'s a big part Derek is I think as staff, you\'re only as good as who your support and the way you support one another. The key thing is communication. So if you are behind, if you feel Hey, you know it would be most efficient if we brought in this vendor or I need help here, like you need to be able to get the confidence to tell your attorney, because ultimately, you guys are working for the same goal. And I think sometimes, especially with newer staff members, they don\'t really have that confidence, and kind of don\'t feel comfortable saying something, but you\'re kind of setting yourself a failure. You have to be able to say, look, I have three cases discoveries do so, and so is doing this. I think it would be best if we brought in this company, you know, and everything that you do that\'s not on a rush basis is going to be obviously most cost effective. So it\'s just communicate, communicate as much as possible. And I can never stress that enough, yeah, especially now, current times. You know, now we need to communicate more than ever. 59:49 Thank you. Thank you. Okay, 59:51 there\'s another question. Um, oh, production log template. Yes, I can, I can email, I can email that. And then, um, Derek, can you? Recommend one of those vendors that you\'re talking about. Yes, 1:00:03 there\'s a lot of them out there. So I\'m not trying to, like, push you guys towards one or the other, but the one that I\'ve been using on a regular basis is I discover they do. They\'ll come up to your office, they\'ll pick up the documents. And you can even, like, give them hard copies and segregate them and tell them these are responsive to like, interrogatory, like 12 or whatever. And then they\'ll scan it and break it out that way, and they\'ll ask you what big numbers you want to start off with and how you want to end it. It\'s a beautiful thing. Then they deliver you the CDs and you\'re done. You know, it\'s nice. It\'s helpful. Is there any other questions or comments that we can address before we close out. 1:00:44 Well, we got a comment that says, What a great webinar full of so much good information. Thank 1:00:48 you. Please make a part three, 1:00:53 another two seekers. 1:00:56 We love you guys. We do. Thank you guys for joining us today, because it\'s so important, you are the support, the backbone of what we do. I cannot live without my legal staff. I know that for a fact, and I\'ll be the first one to admit it. So thank you for joining us. Thank you for always educating yourself and making yourself better. You know Lupe and Rose, you guys do such a good job organizing this committee for them. We look forward to seeing you guys soon at some type of function, and not just through zoom, everyone close and everyone come up to us, say hi to us, if you see us at any anything, hopefully there\'s there\'ll be something soon. 1:01:32 I echo everything Derek said, and I just want to again, thank all of you for your hard work. We couldn\'t do what we do without you guys. So thank you for continuing to learn and for doing what you do every day for us and for our clients. 1:01:44 So doctors on leans Thank you. Deborah Aubrey Jordan, thank you so much for your support in making this webinar happen. 1:01:52 Absolutely and that actually concludes our session. I would like to thank our speakers and moderators for their participation, and thank all of our registrants who attended today\'s program. Certificates of attendance and evaluation forms will be emailed to live attendees within 24 hours. And we ask that you take a few moments to provide us with your evaluation of today\'s program. I invite you to visit your association website for a list of more upcoming programs and have a Wonderful day. Hi guys, thank you. Hi. There we go.