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Or, should the title be: DISMISSED WITHOUT PREJUDICE (and how much of a win is this?) Ok, I realize there may be some pitfalls in that PRA could re-open my case. But, do they/would they do that? I ain't gloating. The lead up was stressful, I was flailing and there were some things I could've done better. See my original post. A recap of the past two weeks: My last hearing was to set a trial date of Feb 8. The judge handed us both an Advance Trial Review Order. ( Look it up for California to see samples of it.) I was confused by the document. It basically was an inventory of case evidence and witnesses. The contract attorney for the plaintiff filed it with nothing listed. (Suspicious: No evidence? No Witnesses?) I did the same. I was late to send out my Discovery/ Demand for Documents to the Plaintiff. This was a mistake. The deadline is tricky. I understood it to be 30 days before trial. But it closes 30 days before trial. I feel I still don't completely understand the deadline, but I now at least know to get it done early, at latest 65 days before trial. That being said- it would have been understandable and permissive for the Plaintiff to just ignore my discovery requests. However, they ended up replying the day before the trial with a point by point refusal of each of my discovery demands per my violation for CCP 2024.020(a) So, why even bother sending me that? Did they have to? Or, were they trying to psyche me out? Anyway... TRIAL DAY! I wake up early, keep a positive attitude, go the gym, "Mama Said Knock You Out" on repeat! Get to the court house early. Breathing deep. Courtroom doors open at 9:00 am sharp. Friday trial call. Everybody signing in. All kinds of people and civil matters stacking the day's schedule. Contract lawyer for the Plaintiff strides in, calls me out while he signs in and announces "I'm going to dismiss your case" . We wait for the judge to call us into the octagon to make it official. And that's it! 5 minutes. So, what happened here? Am I lucky? Did I simply answer and show up? Did I use the Magic Words? Well, like I said- no gloating here. I got TWO MORE of these things on deck.