Legal Question in Family Law in California

I was wondering what the etiquette was for a 473 motion argument, my response, then their response. Am I supposed to respond to their response? How many times is the argument in writing supposed to go back and forth before the hearing which is in 25 days? Thank you!


Asked on 1/31/14, 8:00 am

1 Answer from Attorneys

Anthony Roach Law Office of Anthony A. Roach

The moving party gets two whacks at the apple. The moving party gets to make their initial arguments first in the motion. The opposition gets a chance to raise their arguments in the opposition. The original moving party then gets a reply, which is a reply to the opposition, and not a chance to raise additional arguments that were not raised in the original moving papers.

There is no such thing as a "surreply" or any other misspelled manner of an argument after the reply. People use these as a result of what I call the monkey see monkey do aspect of family law, but most judges are on top of the rules and reject them out of hand without reading them.

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Answered on 1/31/14, 8:07 am


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