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How to Appeal a Civil Judgment in Another State

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  • 02-18-2010, 07:08 PM
    underwater
    How to Appeal a Civil Judgment in Another State
    This is regarding a judgement in the state of California. I received a letter regarding being added to an amended judgement that was against a company I previously worked for. I only worked for the company for less than 2 of the 5 months the plaintiff claims the activities took place and was in training 3,000 miles away during that time. I had no knowledge of the activites the company was involved in. How do I appeal this and do I need an attorney in my current state or the state of California?
  • 02-19-2010, 04:24 PM
    KeyWestDan
    Re: How to Appeal a Civil Judgement in Another State
    You need to hire an attorney in CA. Immediately.

    How can you be "added" to a judgment? They have to name you as a defendant in the civil action, serve you, and do the entire case to trial and judgment. I don't understand how they can "amend" a judgment. That needs to be researched obviously. Nobody can just add a third party who was never sued to a judgment by "amendment".

    Perhaps someone here knows CA law but I would be surprised if anyone has direct knowledge, especially based on the lack of detail in your posting.
  • 02-20-2010, 11:26 AM
    Mr. Knowitall
    Re: How to Appeal a Civil Judgment in Another State
    You were served with the lawsuit, naming you as a party? And then what? You chose to ignore it, resulting in a default judgment, or did a lawyer appear and defend you in court?

    Realistically speaking, you need to hire a lawyer in California to try to dig your way out of this hole. We have essentially no information about your case, so that's about all we can say.
  • 02-20-2010, 05:04 PM
    underwater
    Re: How to Appeal a Civil Judgment in Another State
    I was never served with anything. I had no knowledge of this at all. I'm guessing the company was served and chose to ignore it. The suing party found my name and several others on a company website and had us added to the judgement 3 years after it was made so they could collect. One of the others added did not work for the company at all during this time and others who did work there were not named.

    Just to clarify some, I worked for a company based out of Californa but I live on the east coast. I've never even been to California. Thanks for the info on the attorney though. This was my biggest question.
  • 02-20-2010, 08:21 PM
    KeyWestDan
    Re: How to Appeal a Civil Judgment in Another State
    Nobody can just "add" individual names to a judgment against a corporation anytime after the fact. They have to be sued in the first place along with the corporation. This is one of the most nutty things I have heard.

    Yes, you must hire an attorney in CA. Try to find one that does this sort of thing, not just some general practioner.

    They could in theory sue the individuals now, but any good attorney for your side should be able to have it dismissed under res judicata, collateral estoppel. In other words, you can NOT sue for the same cause of action more than once. They should have included any allegedly liable individuals in the original action.

    Somebody has pulled a dirty trick. I don't even know how that could be done. If it was an attorney, I would think that attorney should be brought up on charges.
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