Robert W. York Associates | Indiana Litigation Attorneys | Video Transcript

[GRAPHIC: Indianapolis Bar Association The Indianapolis Bar Association is a non-profit legal professional membership organization committed to serving its members, promoting justice and enhancing the legal profession in Indianapolis]
[GRAPHIC: Navigating The Legal System]
[GRAPHIC: I've just been sued. What should I do?]
[GRAPHIC: Summons]
NARRATOR: It all begins with a piece of paper. The postman might deliver it. Or maybe you answer a knock on the door.
MARY DOE: Hi.
SHERIFF: Hello. I have a summons for a Mary Doe.
MARY DOE: I'm Mary Doe.
NARRATOR: And it's a sheriff who hands the piece of paper to you. Certain words pop out as you try and make sense of what you've been given.
[GRAPHIC: Summons]
NARRATOR: Words like summons and plaintiff and defendant. Then you read the first sentence.
MARY DOE: You are hereby notified that you have been sued by the persons named as plaintiff and in the court indicated above.
NARRATOR: And it all becomes clear. The piece of paper you hold in your hands is a summons. And what that summons is telling you is you have just been sued.
ROBERT YORK: Getting sued means that someone is claiming in a court of law that you did something or that you didn't do something that violated the law and as a result of the violation of that law, they want you to pay them money or do some action to correct the wrong.
NARRATOR: The specifics of why you're being sued are spelled out on another piece of paper, a document called a complaint, which you get when you receive your summons.
[GRAPHIC: Summons]
NARRATOR: And although there seems no end to the things someone could accuse you of doing, or not doing in lawsuit, what really matters is how you respond.
JUDGE CYNTHIA AYERS: If you receive a summons for any reason, as any lawsuit, the first thing I would do is try to find an attorney.
ELIZABETH WHITE: I always recommend the first thing people do is get a lawyer, or at least seek legal advice.
NARRATOR: Like it or not, your life changes when somebody sues you.
[GRAPHIC: Books]
NARRATOR: Suddenly you have stepped, or been pushed onto a new playing field. One with rules and regulations based on things you might not know too much about.
[GRAPHIC: Cyclopedia of Trial Practice books]
NARRATOR: Legal terms, legal documents, legal traditions, legal proceedings, legal challenges, legal interpretations, legal timetables, legal judgments.
ROBERT YORK: When the postman or the sheriff delivers the summons to you, you must accept it. Even though that simple act of accepting that paper launches you into a whole new world.
NARRATOR: If it all seems a bit overwhelming to you, you are not alone.
[GRAPHIC: Books]
NARRATOR: The rules of the legal system are good rules, created to serve the noble purposes of order and stability, equality and fairness.
[GRAPHIC: Indiana Rules of Court]
[GRAPHIC: Pages from book]
NARRATOR: But to those of us new to the system, these rules can seem arbitrary, cold and hard, complicated and confusing. We react with feelings of fear and intimidation. And it's easy to want to run away and hide.
ROBERT YORK: And those are normal reactions. But if the next reaction is to calm down and say, okay, just like if I had just broken my arm unfortunately, I'm going to go to the emergency room. then I'm going to call my lawyer or I'm going to find a lawyer and I'm going to say here's what happened, what should I do. This is Bob York speaking.
NARRATOR: Most lawyers will not charge for initial consultation.
ROBERT YORK: Okay, what can I do for you today?
NARRATOR: They are eager to learn more about you and to see if there are ways their knowledge and experience can help.
ROBERT YORK: Certainly in my office I would meet with my client, find the facts, try to determine what defenses we had to the case and so on. And then file an appropriate what we call responsive pleading.
NARRATOR: Resolution of your lawsuit requires active participation by you in a carefully planned, court-ordered sequence of events. Beginning with the discovery phase.
MARY DOE: Hi, I'm here for the deposition.
RECEPTIONIST: Good afternoon. We're all set up in here.
MARY DOE: Thank you.
ROBERT YORK: Once you've accepted the help of an attorney, the very first thing they will do is to make sure they learn everything about not only your case, but the other side's case.
In a lawsuit, each side has the right of what we call discovery, which means they have the right to learn the facts that support their case and your case.
This process is usually accomplished by written questions, called interrogatories, which must be signed and answered under oath to be truthful, or oral questions. The same thing, must be truthful and answered under oath and we call that a deposition.
COURT REPORTER: Ms. Doe, will you raise your right hand to be sworn please. Do you swear or affirm that the testimony you are about to give will be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
MARY DOE: Yes, I do.
COURT REPORTER: Thank you.
KEVIN MCGOFF: Miss Doe, my name is Kevin McGoff. What I'd like to do is ask you a couple of questions today so that we can better understand the facts. Is that understandable to you?
MARY DOE: Yes.
KEVIN MCGOFF: If you don't understand anything that I ask you, would you please stop me and ask me to rephrase the question, which I'd be happy to do for you.
MARY DOE: Okay.
KEVIN MCGOFF: Okay. At the time that this accident happened, was the light red, or was the light green?
NARRATOR: Also both sides must share fully all papers and documents that are relevant to the case.
ROBERT YORK: If the people involved in a lawsuit cannot work it out between themselves, they can seek the assistance of a third person who has no other interest in the case, other than to serve as what we call a mediator who looks at the case from all sides and tries to work out a solution that both parties can be agreeable with. We call this process mediation.
BAILIFF: All rise. Marion County Superior Court. Court is now in session. The Honorable Cynthia Ayers presiding.
ROBERT YORK: If the parties do not resolve their dispute in mediation, the only avenue left is to go to trial. Trial is a formal process where the parties appear in court, represented by their attorneys.
KEVIN MCGOFF: Thank you, Judge.
ROBERT YORK: Witnesses are sworn and they're examined and cross examined. If it's in front of a jury, the judge will read formal instruction. It is a process that if you find yourself in, you probably won't be able to say it looks much like Boston Legal or Law & Order. But one thing is sure, win or lose, the case will be resolved at trial.
NARRATOR: Whether your case settles out of court, or whether you must go to trial, you can count on your lawyer to keep you well informed and to put you at ease in your new, unfamiliar surroundings and situations.
ROBERT YORK: Interestingly, I've had, over the course of my years I've had people that do try to represent themselves.
JUDGE CYNTHIA AYERS: I think that's very, it's a very dangerous proposition to try to navigate your way completely through a legal question without an attorney.
ROBERT YORK: Imagine someone who's been sued trying to negotiate with another lawyer without really understanding the ins and outs maybe even of the law regarding their particular case.
JUDGE CYNTHIA AYERS: It seems to me that people have the impression that lawyers just do a lot of talking. But the truth is they've been trained to think analytically and to solve people's problems, to evaluate the situation, you know, completely from top to bottom and then give you their advice about how to handle it.
So if you're doing it on your own, you see you've missed out on all of that and, and you may have missed something very important that could be to your benefit in your lawsuit.
NARRATOR: And the earlier in the process you accept a lawyer's help, the better.
ROBERT YORK: Many, many times it is less expensive to resolve something at the beginning than to jump in at the end and try and clean up a mess.
JUDGE CYNTHIA AYERS: The worst thing of all though is not to answer the summons.
ELIZABETH WHITE: If you ignore the request for your appearance at a legal case, then you are putting yourself in jeopardy.
JUDGE CYNTHIA AYERS: Twenty-three days passes and you haven't answered the summons, then you're in jeopardy of it being defaulted.
ROBERT YORK: Which means that you lose. Even if you have a great case, or a great defense, the court can enter a default judgment against you just as if the case went to trial and he heard evidence and/or she, he or she heard evidence and decided against you. The case is over.
[GRAPHIC: Need a lawyer?]
JUDGE CYNTHIA AYERS: I hope that people know to use the Indianapolis Bar Association for their legal referrals if they don't already have a lawyer.
[GRAPHIC: Indianapolis Bar Association Lawyer Referral Service www.indybar.org (317) 269-2222]
JUDGE CYNTHIA AYERS: They have someone available every day, eight hours a day to direct you to the proper attorney and, and many times we have low cost legal programs.
[GRAPHIC: Summons]
ROBERT YORK: If, if you've been sued in a case, you call a lawyer and say to the lawyer, here's the facts, most lawyers I think are going to say to you, you really ought to hire, whether you hire me or someone else, you really need to have somebody involved and here's why. I, I think competent, skilled, experienced lawyers would certainly do that.
MARY DOE: Thank you so much for everything you've done for us.
ROBERT YORK: I'm really glad that we could be of help.
[GRAPHIC: Indianapolis Bar Association (317) 269-2222 www.indybar.org]
[GRAPHIC: Underwritten by the Indianapolis Bar Foundation]
[GRAPHIC: Indianapolis Bar Foundation Philanthropy Education Service]