OMG I am so freaking out right now....

[tikilyn]

I was served on Thursday 3/17 and had 10 days to answer the complaint. Well today I went into the clerks office to give them my answer. She then proceeds to give me a court day of April 4th! I question her about the 50 days that I have to fill out the Request for admissions and Request for production. The judge didn't even know about the 50 days and called someone else to confirm.

They told me that all I needed to do was give them a hand written statement saying that I am planning on showing up in court. So now my official court date is April 7th. And I have no time to do anything. I'm so upset right. I thought I was on the right track and handling this well. I guess not.

[BV80]

Read your Rules of Civil Procedure. See if the Plaintiff must have your answers to their discovery a certain amount of time before the hearing. Considering the hearing is April 7, there shouldn't be a problem getting your responses to their discovery requests to them in time.

Just write up your answers to their requests in the proper court format. If you have questions about how to answer something, the members of this forum will be glad to help if we can.

[ConsumerAttorney]

At least in Missouri a Plaintiff cannot send discovery requests until after the first court date. If I were the OP I would appear in court and ask the Judge for additional time to answer the discovery requests.

[ConsumerAttorney]

And, don't freak out.

[donqII]

And, don't freak out.

Ah, well said..... however, that is easier said then done.

But in truth..... first day in court is the worst. After that

it gets easier.

[Tex_Tea]

It sounds to me like you are in Texas Justice Court because it only allows 10 days for an answer.

That is a bit odd though. My understanding was there is supposed to be a minimum of 45 days between the day the answer has to be filed and the court date.

All the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure apply in Justice Court. You should be allowed to do some discovery.

I have some other things to do first, but I will see if I can find some info for that 45 days.

[Tex_Tea]

Texas Justice Courts (Not Small Claims) are required to follow the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure. Rule 245 indicates the following:

The court may set contested cases on written request of any party, or on the court's own motion, with reasonable notice of not less than forty-five days to the parties of a first setting for trial, or by agreement of the parties; provided, however, that when a case previously has been set for trial, the Court may reset said contested case to a later date on any reasonable notice to the parties or by agreement of the parties.

That is the first sentence of Rule 245 - Source:

http://www.supreme.courts.state.tx.us/rules/trcp/rcp_all.pdf

You may want to see if your county courts have local rules and those applicable to Justice Court. They might have some addendum to that.

You may want to seek further resolution with the clerk based on Rule 245.

I think discovery ends 30 days prior to trial, so you may want to get on that.

In any case, good luck, chill out, and then perhaps get busy on your case!

Edit - Additional Support Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 523:

RULE 523. DISTRICT COURT RULES GOVERN

All rules governing the district and county courts shall also govern the justice courts, insofar as they can be applied, except where otherwise specifically provided by law or these rules.

Edited March 25, 2011 by Tex_Tea