• View
• Edit
• History
• Print

Chapter V - General Suggestions for Success

The greatest difficulties are the procedures: What do you do? How do you do it,? When? There seem to be no written instructions on a lot of these things. But if you do it wrong, you’re up against a roadblock. Here are some hints the author has discovered for coping:

Copy the opposition. If they file a paper ahead of you and it’s accepted by the court, that tells you how to proceed. Just imitate them. Let the developers fund your legal education. Get a copy of your local rules of superior court from the court clerk or download them off the web—an absolute must. Also get the California Rules of Court off the web, as you’re always subject to both of these sets of rules.

Invest in a card for the law library. It’s a must. Usually there’s a one-time deposit which allows you to borrow books forever after. Of course, anyone can go in there to read books or copy cases. But sometimes you’ll want to take a book home or to a less expensive copy machine than the ones the library has.

Copy your successful predecessors. Anyone can request the clerk of the court to pull a case out of the files for inspection. You simply go up to the appropriate window in the superior court clerk’s area and ask for it. You’ll find all the documents filed in the case, so you can see how it was done. Try to find a case similar to the one you’re doing.

Although all the state codes are available online, you might want to order a printed copy of the California Code of Civil Procedure, compact edition, published by West Publishing Company, 50 W. Kellogg Blvd., P.O. Box 64833, St. Paul, MN 55164-9752. You use this book a lot because it gives you the law dealing with such court procedures as filing deadlines and proofs of service. It also describes the writ of mandate, the special court order you use to overturn a development approval. (CCP §§1085 and 1094.5.) (Like all laws, the Code of Civil Procedure is subject to change each year, so be sure you’re using a current edition.

A legal dictionary will also come in handy for decoding legal jargon. Barron’s Law Dictionary, published by Barron’s Educational Series, Inc., 250 Wireless Blvd., Hauppauge, NY 11788 is also available in bookstores.

If your case involves land use issues other than CEQA, there’s Longtin’s California Land Use, published by Local Government Publications, P.O. Box 306, Malibu, CA 90265. This is a two-volume set, very readable, giving you in-depth discussion of all the state law on land use—an extremely valuable reference when preparing briefs.

Don’t get upset at the court clerks. Some of them are less helpful than others. All are wary of giving you legal advice, for obvious reasons. Some evidently don’t approve of having people doing their own lawsuits, and go out of their way to hassle you. Here are some tips for dealing with the court clerks:

• Act as though you know what you’re doing as much as possible. Don’t say, “I’m really new at this and don’t know what to do.”
• Don’t argue with them or insist they’re wrong. Try asking them what you need to do in order to file your papers, or whatever you’re trying to do, then do exactly as they say. If worst comes to worst, you can always get back in line and wait to get a different clerk.
• Many are ignorant of the peculiar procedures that go with a CEQA or other land use lawsuit, and have to go ask somebody else or look up the answer. If you think they’re screwing up, try saying “Well, I did this once before this way and didn’t have any trouble with it.”

Don’t file your papers on the last allowable day to do so. Something may go wrong at the court or the printer’s. You never know. Give yourself at least a day. Remember, there’s no flexibility on legal deadlines.

Be careful when you talk to the opposition’s lawyers. Some of these characters (who, after all, are into defending environmental rape) will try to take advantage of your unfamiliarity with legal matters. They may specifically assign a “good cop” type attorney in the firm the task of dealing with you. This person may pretend to be helpful, even expressing personal sympathy for your cause, and suggest how you should do something, or ask you to agree verbally to something. If you feel at all uncomfortable about such a request, you should simply tell them you need to check it out, and that you’ll get back to them. Also, watch what you say. If there’s any way they can use your words against you later, they will.

Remember, there are huge developer bucks on the table in these cases, and these bottom-feeding scavengers are out for their share of the environmental kill. Never trust them! Unlike you, many of them will say or do anything they think they can get away with to win their case.

Set up your computer with the “caption sheet,” the cover sheet giving the case name and other information you use on every paper your prepare for filing. Do the same for a proof of service. Then, when you need to prepare a document, you can just whip out the caption and type in the title of the paper.