Legal Question in Civil Litigation in California

is an attorney's signature required when propounding discovery?

(california civil procedure)


Asked on 3/01/13, 2:46 pm

2 Answers from Attorneys

Jacob Kiani Law Office of Jacob I. Kiani

Not if it is a party proceeding in pro per that is propounding the discovery requests

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Answered on 3/01/13, 2:55 pm

If the party propounding the discovery has an attorney of record, the attorney must sign it no matter who prepares it. If the party is self-represented, then the party must sign it. The one exception is discovery subpoenas. those must be signed by "an officer of the court." That is the only thing I know of that gives any real meaning to the saying that a lawyer is an officer of the court, because attorneys can sign subpoenas. Self-represented parties cannot. They must go to the court and have the subpoenas issued. Each court has its own procedures for that. Orange County I believe has pre-issued subpoenas you can just pick up. Other courts make you submit the completed subpoena to have it issued; some even review the subpoena and decide whether it should issue, though with how under-staffed and over-worked the courts are these days not many do that anymore.

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Answered on 3/03/13, 11:26 am


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