The lawyer has a duty to turn over the file to you (with a few exceptions). Therefore, if you make a written demand of him, he is required to give you the file. If the attorney doesn't surrender the file, then, I'd think that your next step would be a complaint to the Bar Association.
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 · If it's a forgery, a professional document examiner can examine it and provide evidence of forgery. If it's not credible evidence, then the opposing party can offer their own evidence in rebuttal. Ask our own lawyer how to deal wtih this evidence.
 · issue a private reprimand (usually a letter sent to the lawyer) issue a public reprimand (usually published in the agency’s official reports and a local legal journal or newspaper) suspend the lawyer (the lawyer cannot practice law for a specific time) disbar the lawyer (the lawyer loses his or her license to practice law), and/or
Dennis BeaverThe attorney does not return phone calls in a reasonable amount of time, and;In a meeting with the client, if the lawyer is being very short, taking phone calls, trying to re-schedule, not giving enough time to the client, does not listen, ignores what is asked or is not answering questions.
So, again, the way to discredit a witness is to bring up prior inconsistent statements that they made. The way to discredit a witness is to call other witness or cross-examine other witnesses and bring up key points about your main witness's testimony and impeach them through over witness statements.
Destroying evidence is prohibited in both criminal and civil cases, including divorce or contract dispute litigation. Essentially, if a document or piece of physical evidence will be used in a trial or investigation of any kind, it is illegal to willfully destroy or conceal it.
Generally, to be admissible, the evidence must be relevant) and not outweighed by countervailing considerations (e.g., the evidence is unfairly prejudicial, confusing, a waste of time, privileged, or, among other reasons, based on hearsay).
Hearsay is defined as an out-of-court statement, made in court, to prove the truth of the matter asserted. These out-of-court statements do not have to be spoken words, but they can also constitute documents or even body language.
Evidence is the means, sanctioned by these rules, of ascertaining in a judicial proceeding the truth respecting a matter of fact. ( 1)SEC. 2. Scope. – The rules of evidence shall be the same in all courts and in all trials and hearings, except as otherwise provided by law or these rules. (
Spoliation of evidence is the intentional, reckless, or negligent withholding, hiding, altering, fabricating, or destroying of evidence relevant to a legal proceeding.
Under California Penal Code 135 PC, it is illegal to knowingly and willfully destroy or conceal any form of evidence that is to be used in a trial or government investigation. The type of evidence is not only limited to tangible items but includes digital files and videos.
Generally, an intentional spoliation or destruction of evidence that is relevant to a case raises a presumption, or an inference that such evidence can be unfavorable.
Direct Evidence The most powerful type of evidence, direct evidence requires no inference and directly proves the fact you are investigating.
It held that the secondary data found in CD's, DVD's, and Pendrive are not admissible in the Court proceedings without a proper authentic certificate according to Section 65B(4) of the Indian Evidence Act, 1872.
Generally, irrelevant evidence, unfairly prejudicial evidence, character evidence, evidence protected by privilege, and, among others, hearsay evidence is inadmissible.
In most states, you can file your complaint by mailing in a state-issued complaint form or a letter with the lawyer's name and contact information, your contact information, a description of the problem, and copies of relevant documents. In some states, you may be able to lodge your complaint over the phone or online.
When a client fires a lawyer and asks for the file, the lawyer must promptly return it. In some states, such as California, the lawyer must return the file even if attorneys’ fees haven’t been paid in full. Lawyer incompetence. Lawyers must have the knowledge and experience to competently handle any case that they take on.
State Disciplinary Boards. Each state has a disciplinary board that enforces state ethics rules for lawyers. The board is usually an arm of the state’s supreme court and has authority to interpret ethics rules, investigate potential violations, conduct evidentiary hearings, and administer attorney discipline.
Lawyers are given a lot of responsibility and often deal with serious matters, from criminal charges to child custody to tax and other financial matters. When you hire a lawyer, you are trusting him or her to represent your interests in the best manner possible. To protect the public—and the integrity of the legal profession—each state has its own code of ethics that lawyers must follow. These are usually called the “rules of professional conduct.”
Lawyer incompetence. Lawyers must have the knowledge and experience to competently handle any case that they take on. They must also be sufficiently prepared to handle matters that come up in your case, from settlement negotiations to trial. Conflicts of interest.
The American Bar Association publishes the Model Rules of Professional Conduct, which lists standard ethical violations and best practices for lawyers. Some states have adopted the model rules as their own ethical rules, while others use it as a guide and modify or add rules.
In most cases, a board of lawyers and non-lawyers will review the complaint. If there’s a potential ethical violation, the board will give the lawyer a copy of the complaint and an opportunity to respond.
To get evidence thrown out in court, you’ll need to prove that it’s unreliable, prejudicial, or not authentic. To prove that evidence isn’t reliable, you’ll need to challenge a witness’s competency. For example, you can object to a witness who didn’t actually observe the event or is only providing hearsay. Unauthentic evidence can also be thrown out, so make sure all documents are original and can be authenticated. To learn how to reject evidence that violates public policy, keep reading!
Courts exclude this evidence because they want to encourage settlement negotiations. If you were worried that your offer of a settlement could be used against you in court, then you might never agree to settle.
Hearsay is a term for testimony in court from a witness who does not have personal knowledge of the events that they are testifying to ; instead, they were told the information by someone else (the “declarant”). Because a witness must have personal knowledge of an event he testifies to, you can often get hearsay evidence thrown out. A classic example of hearsay would be if someone testified that they heard something somebody had done, but didn’t see it.
Challenge a witness’s competency. A witness is only competent to testify about an event if he has personal knowledge of it. Object to any witness who begins testifying about an event without first establishing that he observed it.
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These hearsay statements are allowed because they have circumstantial guarantees of trustworthiness.
Because a witness must have personal knowledge of an event he testifies to, you can often get hearsay evidence thrown out. A classic example of hearsay would be if someone testified that they heard something somebody had done, but didn’t see it. There are several exceptions to the hearsay rule.
Defendants should insist that their lawyers adhere to their ethical obligation to inform them about the progress of their cases. As defined by ethical rules, a lawyer's duty to keep clients informed has two primary components: 1 to advise the defendant of case developments (such as a prosecutor's offered plea bargain or locating an important defense witness), and 2 to respond reasonably promptly to a defendant's request for information.
A defendant who phones his or her attorney with a request for information can indicate a willingness to speak with the lawyer's associate, secretary, or paralegal. The lawyer may be too tied up on other cases to return the call personally, but may have time to pass along information through an assistant.
As defined by ethical rules, a lawyer's duty to keep clients informed has two primary components: to advise the defendant of case developments (such as a prosecutor's offered plea bargain or locating an important defense witness), and. to respond reasonably promptly to a defendant's request for information.
The duty to keep clients informed rests on attorneys, not clients. But on the theory that if the attorney screws up it's the client who usually suffers, here are a couple of steps that defendants can take to try to secure effective communication with their lawyers:
The consequences of a lawyer’s failure to file documents on time can be severe. Not only can you suffer a financial loss, but you may have to wait a year or more before you receive compensation from the lawyer who failed to properly represent you. If you believe you have a case against a former lawyer, you should reach out to an experienced, full-service law firm with expertise in a wide range of legal practice areas and a proven track record of success.
During a lawsuit, all parties have the right to request information from other parties concerning their respective claims and defenses. This process, known as “discovery,” can include requests for documents, requests for answers to written questions (interrogatories), and requests for the responding party to admit some or all allegations in the requesting party’s complaint. Responses to discovery requests are subject to time limits.
To recover for malpractice, in addition to showing that your lawyer breached a duty owed to you by failing to file, you will also need to convince the court hearing your malpractice case that it was the lawyer’s failure to file—not any failure on your part or weakness in your case—that caused the har m you sustained .
Legal Malpractice. Much of the work lawyers do involves filing various documents. Often, there are deadlines by which documents must be filed. Even when there are no fixed deadlines, a lawyer’s delay in filing certain documents can permanently impair a client’s rights. You might wonder why a simple failure to file a document “on time” could destroy ...
However, some tort claims—notably legal and medical malpractice—have shorter, one-year time limits for filing.
If your lawyer fails to file such a motion, there is no penalty other than the cost and delay of a potentially unnecessary trial. However, if an opposing party files a summary judgment motion against you, your lawyer must file a written response within the time set by court rules or by the trial judge.
Filing in a timely manner may be necessary to protect a person’s interest in a residential or commercial lease. Filing may also be necessary to protect a person’s or entity’s interest in an oil and gas lease, or in the oil and gas beneath a property.
In a nutshell, the rule provides that, if you are trying to prove the content of a document, you must produce the original, unless you can establish that the original is lost, not obtainable, or is in the possession of your opponent, or relates only to a collateral issue. MRE 1002, 1003, 1004, 1005, 1006, and 1007. Again, you can avoid some unpleasantness with this via Requests for Admission (MRCP 36). If you trip and fall here, proceed to Step 10.
If the court rules your document inadmissible. If the court sustains a hearsay objection, for example, first offer another exception as an alternative. If that fails, offer another. If you feel the judge is wrong based on a specific case, offer that case and ask the judge to reconsider based on that authority. If your efforts are unsuccessful, ask that the document be marked “for identification purposes only,” per MRCP 103 (a) (2). That request will never be denied if you made a bone fide effort to get the document into evidence. You may still be able to get the document into evidence through the testimony of another, later witness, but if you cannot, the document is in the record for appeal purposes; if you do not have it marked for identification purposes only, it will not be in the record for appeal. You may try later to file a post-trial motion to supplement the record if you neglected to get the document in at the trial, but you will not likely get any relief if the trial judge is not satisfied that there was sufficient testimony of the witness about it, or the judge did not have an opportunity to examine it and rule on it.
If you can not establish authenticity, proceed to Step 10.
It can be daunting for young lawyers to tiptoe through the evidentiary minefield of the courtroom, but perhaps the most intimidating of all is to get a document into evidence, a process fraught with objections and roadblocks.
If you need more testimony from the witness about the document or its contents, you can go on from there. The witness will need to have a copy of the exhibit from which to testify. But remember that if you take the original from the judge, the judge will not know what you are talking about.
You may still be able to get the document into evidence through the testimony of another, later witness, but if you cannot, the document is in the record for appeal purposes; if you do not have it marked for identification purposes only, it will not be in the record for appeal.
If he fails to comply, you should explore filing a grievance with the state supreme court's attorney regulation office.
Your attorney may be in violation of attorney ethical rules. You should provide him one more opportunity to provide you copies of your file by making a written request. If he fails to comply, you should explore filing a grievance with the state supreme court's attorney regulation office. Report Abuse. Report Abuse.
If the attorney doesn't surrender the file, then, I'd think that your next step would be a complaint to the Bar Association. Report Abuse. Report Abuse.
Send a demand letter to the attorney requiring that he provide you your entire file. Client files are the property of the clients and attorneys may not withhold them including for non-payment of attorney fees. Under the Rules of Professional Conduct (RPC), rule 3-700 requires the attorney on termination of their representation to return all client papers and property on your request. Under RPC 3-500, an attorney is required to comply with reasonable requests for information and copies of significant documents when necessary to keep the client informed.
Send a letter to the attorney requesting a copy of the complete file. If Attorney refuses, make a complaint to your local county Bar Association.
Your lawyer is obligated to provide copies of his/her file to you, for a reasonable charge.
There are a few, very limited circumstances in which a lawyer might not be able to show their client some evidence in a case against them. Usually, this relates to child abuse. Certain reports from agencies that investigate child abuse will be prohibited from disclosure to the alleged perpetrator.
If the attorney has evidence, his client certainly has a right to review it. Obviously, evidence from the minor victim that she had sex with the defendant will be a major part of the evidence. The other evidence seems to be phone records. He has an explanation for the phone records, supported apparently only by his mother.
Normally an attorney will explain all the evidence to a client. All material received in discovery should be reviewed with the client. The cell phone logs should be available and reviewable. Statements also fall in this category. It depends on what is discoverable as my colleague indicates. Sometime a letter to the Judge can clear such things up.
Discovery is the process through which defendants find out about the prosecution's case. For example, through standard discovery procedure, they can: get copies of the arresting officers' reports and statements made by prosecution witnesses, and. examine evidence that the prosecution proposes to introduce at trial.
Discovery is likely a significant reason why at least 90% of criminal cases settle before trial. Issues regarding settlement aside, discovery is intended to help defendants in the sense that prosecutors must hand over certain information that's helpful to the defense.
Not exclusively. Sure, advance disclosure promotes fairer trial outcomes, but it also promotes case settlement, which saves judicial time and resources. If a guilty defendant finds out before trial that the prosecution has a particularly strong case, that defendant will be more likely to plead guilty and save the government the hassle of trying the case. Discovery is likely a significant reason why at least 90% of criminal cases settle before trial.
Traditionally, the prosecutor wasn't entitled to information about a defendant's case. But in recent years, discovery has become more of a two-way street. Just as defendants can discover information from prosecutors, so too can prosecutors examine certain evidence in the hands of defendants.
The latter is called "work product.". Prosecutors don't have to turn over their work product to defendants —otherwise, it just wouldn't be fair.
Not really. Prosecutors can't disclose all discovery on the eve of trial, but on the other hand, they don't have to divulge it all way ahead of time. Discovery can unfold gradually. For example, a defendant's attorney might receive a copy of the police report at the first court appearance, but might not receive a prosecution expert's written analysis of blood evidence until shortly before trial.
Unlike prosecutors, defendants can't call on police agencies to help them investigate and respond to evidence they find out about for the first time at trial. Thus, every jurisdiction (each state and the federal government) has discovery rules requiring prosecutors to disclose evidence to defendants prior to trial.