Q: Are plaintiffs required to notify defendants about the motions they file?
I, the defendant, never received any notice from the plaintiff regarding a motion to dismiss my answer that they filed. They have also more recently filed several motions for discovery, none of which I have had any notice of. I only found out by looking up the case in the online records.
A:
Generally yes. You don't say if your case is in Federal court or State court. You also don't say if you are represented by an attorney, but since you are seeking answers online, I presume that you are not represented by one.
If you look at the motions that were filed (that you didn't get copies of) there should be a page at the end, or even a separate document, called a certificate of service. That is where the Plaintiff's attorney has to specify how they complied with the rules that require service. Pay careful attention to that document. Perhaps they have an incorrect address for you. Perhaps they say that they sent it via email and it got caught in your spam filter. Or perhaps they sent it certified mail and you refused to sign for it (has happened to me with a defendant that thought the head in the sand approach would work well for them).
In any event, if you are not receiving copies that they say they are sending, reach out to them and arrange for alternative service, such as by email or by fax.
Best of luck.
Tim Akpinar and Evan S. Sloan agree with this answer
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