Legal Question in Civil Litigation in California

Re: Motion for Dismissal of Lawsuit

Unfortunately, your question is far too vague to answer in a useful way. Are you thinking of dismissing a lawsuit you brought? If so, a motion is generally not necessary; all you need to do is file a request for dismissal. (But be careful -- how you do this can significantly impact your rights and/or leave you vulnerable to suit by the defendant for malicious prosecution!)

If you want to get rid of a suit where you are the defendant, you can do so by bringing a demurrer (which can only be done before you answer and which will only succeed if the complaint is legally defective) or a motion for summary judgment (which argues that the other side can't prove its case, and which thus usually needs to be done after the case has progressed through discovery for quite some time).

Motions for dismissal are quite rare, and can only be brought under limited circumstances. For example, a lawsuit intended to silence the defendant's First Amendment rights to protest the plaintiff's activities is subject to a motion to strike, but only because there is a specific statute authorizing such a motion in these cases. A motion to strike can also be based on active misconduct or dillatory tactics in the litigation by the other side, but such circumstances are rare.

I hope this is helpful to you.

Re: Motion for Dismissal of Lawsuit

In California State courts, as opposed to Federal

courts, a motion to dismiss is pretty rare. A

motion to dismiss would be made on the grounds that

the plaintiff has failed to diligently prosecute

the case, or on the grounds that the outcome of some

other motion has already determined the case.

You might be thinking of a demurrer, which is an argument

that, even if all of the facts alleged by the plaintiff

are true, the lawsuit isn't sufficient to support

plaintiff's claims. Whether to file one depends

upon the merits of the argument and how easily the

plaintiff could rectify any defects in the pleadings.