Motion for Continuance

[gusto]

I just had a question about filing a Motion for Continuance.... I just received a Notice of Hearing from HSBC Bank. They commenced action against me a few months back, I denied the claim and responed with an Answer requesting validation of the debt as per the FDCPA including the original contract, statements and orginal signed agreement. I am not sure if using the FDCPA was the correct thing to do as I believe this applies only 3rd party creditors or collection agencies. The Plaintiff in the case is HSBC bank, nevertheless I did request the contract, statements, etc.

HSBC bank did not repond with anything except requests for production of documents, admissions and interrogatories. I sent a timely response to their request for production of documents with :

"Defendant is unaware of any such documents and therefore cannot produce said documents"

and to their admissions (denied) and interrogatories "Defendant at this time does not have sufficient knowledge or information to form a belief as to the truth of the allegation contained therein, and leaves the Plaintiff to provide proof. Defendant demands strict proof thereof.

I in turn submitted my own requests for admissions, production of documents and interrogatories basically using examples from this forum requesting validation of the debt, i.e. contracts, statements, etc. These were filed at the clerks office and sent to the plaintiff on November 11th.

HSBC has thus far not filed any response to my requests and, unless I am mistaken, have exceeded the 14 days to respond to admissions and interrogatories. The production of documents will exceed 30 days by the day of the hearing which is set for December 14.

So to those of you that have been there and done that, at the outset of researching my next move, what are my options at this point???

At the moment I am thinking about filing a Motion for Continuance just to buy a little more time. However, I am not sure on what grounds I would be granted a continuance????

Would allowing the Plaintiff more time to submit a response be okay... or would an exercise of diligence in trying to prepare for the case work???? Possibly pendency of action in regards to another action I have against Capital One ( I recently filed a Motion to Reconsider following a motion for summary judgment) who is represented by the same attorneys... or the fact that I do have to work on that particular day??????

Also, what are my chances of a favorable outcome at the hearing on December 14 based on the fact that the Plaintiff has yet to respond to my discovery requests?????

[skippy1960]

I think you need to start reviewing your rules of civil procedure for you state which governs timelines and will answer all your quesitons.

Generally, speaking if you filed for discovery in a timely fashion and haven't recieved anything back then should be you first motion or discussion point at the hearing. Defendant is prejudiced from defending themselves without the discovery.

You need to be able to prove you sent the discovery via POS or CMMR.

You have to get into rules of civil procedure and find some answers. I lost a case on these that I didn't have to loose, and the attornies play on this, civil procedures may say you sent your discovery late and they don't have to answer, you need to know this prior to making argument in court....