Legal Question in Personal Injury in Utah
Is it to my advantage to have more defendants listed in my complaint, or just one? I am preparing a complaint to file in Federal court against State and Local Government concerning matters of Copyright Law and Tort Law. I have a case where I can list the government entities as defendants. Should I also list certain employees who have willfully committed wrongs, and would therefore not have the shield of immunity protecting them? Or, since the government entities have the deeper pockets, is there no need to go after the small fry? It seems wrong to me to leave those who have committed wrongs remain in office, with no lawsuit filed against them or damage to their reputation, ready to prey upon and harm their next victim. But would it harm my case to add too many defendants? If the liability is spread across all equally in a case involving a conspiracy, doesn't it weaken my ability to collect from the "deepest pocket" if I list many defendants instead of just listing just the government entity?
2 Answers from Attorneys
List all responsible parties that are necessary for a complete resolution of your case.
I don't want to be "wishy-washy," but this answer is way too complicated to be able to answer in this format. As a general rule, you want all of the defendants that may have some liability on the verdict form. However, immunity issues and general strategy is going to dictate a case by case and defendant by defendant strategy. I'm sorry, but I can't help you much with general answers in this situation, because each case is so fact specific. You have a duty to undertake a good faith investigation, but you also don't want to leave out proper defendants. Good luck.
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