Q: Civil Court Question
State of Ohio - Civil Rules
I am the defendant in a civil suit. I received, via regular US mail, a notice of their motion for a summary judgement. Sates I must respond within 14 days of receipt or judgement will be made. This came from the court.
Question 1 : Since they have no proof of date of receipt, how much time do i really have to respond?
Question 2 : Their lawyer has filed several motions, none of which they served me a copy of. They only submitted their motions to the court. Doesn't this violate the rules of civil procedure or something like that?
A:
Question 1: you need to respond within two weeks of the date of the postmark. Service by regular mail is considered complete when the mail is posted. Otherwise, people would just do what you want to do all the time, which is pretend they didn't get the thing for weeks.
Question 2: You can respond to motions that were improperly served by raising the issue of improper service with the court. The result will likely be that the court grants you extra time to respond and requires the opposing side to serve you properly. Note that many motions are served through the court. If you got a copy of the motion within the time for service, it doesn't matter whether it came from the court's mailing address or the plaintiffs. Improper service may delay resolution of the case, but is not going to kill it.
A note: you should get a lawyer. Representing yourself is inviting disaster.
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