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Hi. I'm Scott Harford. I'm a trial attorney in New York with
the law firm Lynch Daskal Emery. I'm here to talk to you about
the three stages of a lawsuit. The first stage is the pleading
stage which leads into the discovery phase - which is the
longest stage of the litigation process - and finally, the trial
stage. The first stage, known as the pleading stage, is the
initiation of the lawsuit. The plaintiff files a complaint and
makes the allegations of the lawsuit. The defendant then
generally can respond in one of two ways: filing an answer or a
motion to dismiss. The answer responds to each separate
allegation in the complaints. In contrast, a motion to dismiss
seeks to dismiss entirely the lawsuit because it was not
adequately alleged in the complaint. After the pleading
stage, the parties then go into the discovery phase which is,
again, the longest phase in the litigation process. This is
where each side finds out information about the other side
in preparation for trial or in an attempt to get a liability
ruling from the judge or the court. The discovery phase is
generally the opportunity to take sworn testimony, take
documents from the other side, or obtain sworn answers to
questions. After the end of the discovery phase, the parties
enter into the trial phase. This is each side's opportunity to
present their side of the story to a judge or jury. The trial
generally takes place with an opening statement, a closing
statement, testimony by fact witnesses, expert witnesses, and
any other interested party in the lawsuit. Of course, at the
end of the trial, each side will have an opportunity to appeal
any rulings from the judge or jury by a matter of law that
they feel were not rightly decided. Why I am I telling you
all this? If you're listening to this, you are going to have
additional questions. This is only a very basic and general
outline of the litigation phase. I want you to pick up the phone
and call me because I have the answers to your questions. Each
and every day of my career I do litigation. Please call me,
1-800-585-1190. I'm Scott Harford. Thanks for watching.