By Jeffrey Koenig
Personal Injury Attorney, The Law Offices of Spar & Bernstein
What is summary judgment?
Summary judgment is when a court finds, as a matter of law, that there are no genuine issues of material fact that need to be submitted to a fact finder—be it judge or jury.
For instance, think about an automobile accident where the defendant hits the plaintiff’s vehicle in the rear while the plaintiff is lawfully stopped at a traffic light causing plaintiff to sustain serious injuries.
This fact pattern—on its face—is sufficient for plaintiff to meet his burden in moving for summary judgment. In fact, a hit-in-the-rear with a stopped vehicle creates a rebuttable presumption of negligence on the part of the defendant.
The burden then shifts to the defendant to come forward with some non-negligent excuse for the happening of this event. If he cannot do so, plaintiff wins the issue of liability and the only issue left is how much money the defendant owes.
Filing for summary judgment is a great way to narrow the issues and focus attention on what matters, i.e. the damages.
When the only issue you have before you is how much your damages are worth, you are in the driver’s seat!
