August 2024 CT

CIVIL LITIGATION... from page 30.

plaintiff will have twenty-years to collect if the defendant ever turns up. Supporting/Defending Claims – Conducting Discovery Once a defendant files his answer the litigation moves into the next phase, which is the “discovery” phase. In this phase the parties “discover” the facts and evidence relevant to the claims and defenses. Because every claim requires a different approach, not every litigation’s discov ery phase will be identical. However, during this phase the parties generally: • Exchange paper document requests including, but not limited to, written interrogatories, which are questions that require certified answers and requests for docu ments in the possession of the parties and non-parties through the use of Notice to Produce Documents and subpoenas (a request to non-parties with the authority of the court behind it). • Conduct investigations into the claims to obtain evidence to support the claims and/or defenses. This step and how it proceeds will be dependent on the claims in the action. Some claims will require little to no investigation

tion’s complaint, the contractor may assert a counterclaim against the association for outstanding payments. If in that same action, there were multiple defendant contractors, each could assert against the other a crossclaim or cross claims. Sometimes though a defendant never files an answer and just ignores the plaintiff’s complaint. There are many reasons defendants do this, most notably that they believe they are judgment proof, meaning they have no collect able assets even if a judgment was entered against them. When a defendant fails to respond to a complaint in any fashion after being properly served, plaintiffs can rely on New Jersey’s procedures to obtain a judgment against an absent party, which is called a “default judgment.” This process typically involves proving to the court that all of the necessary steps to apprise the defendant of the action were taken (service) and ultimately proving to the court, even in the absence of the defendant, the damages caused by the absent defendant. Once obtained, like any judgment, a

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