10 ms·

It's a bit more complicated than that. Approximately 100% of civil cases see a motion to dismiss early on, essentially the legal argument that the suit is obvio

It's a bit more complicated than that. Approximately 100% of civil cases see a motion to dismiss early on, essentially the legal argument that the suit is obviously unfounded. Since it wastes everyone's time, attorneys don't tend to bring those sorts of suits, so the great majority of motions to dismiss don't go through. Judges tend to think that the suits actually brought to court should be heard out. So while settling isn't at all an admission to the claims of the case, it's at least done in recognition that a reasonable person would probably want to hear out both sides of the argument before deciding. It is a pretty strict standard, and I'm not a lawyer so I couldn't say what exactly would qualify for dismissal outright. Maybe something like "this person has never even met my client" or "this company doesn't even exist".

huac 10y ago
"the law under which you are suing does not exist" but short of one of these it's pretty easy to make a plausible case. the standard in civil cases is 'preponderance of evidence' rather than 'beyond a reasonable doubt'
- nxzero 10y ago
  Preponderance of the Evidence vs. Beyond a Reasonable Doubt: http://www.legalmatch.com/law-library/article/preponderance-of-the-evidence-vs-beyond-a-reasonable-doubt.html http://www.legalmatch.com/law-library/article/preponderance-...
CPLX 10y ago
Typical basic motions to dismiss usually fall into these main categories: 1. This isn't the right court (jurisdiction) 2. We're not the right parties (standing/jurisdiction) 3. It's too late (statute of limitations) 4. No law has been broken (failure to state claim) 5. Nobody was really harmed (failure to state claim) Typically it's numbers 4 and 5 that would matter for a frivolous lawsuit. If you want to see what that kind of lawsuit and a successful motion to dismiss look like here's a good example: https://cases.justia.com/new-york/other-courts/2013-ny-slip-op-32402-u.pdf?ts=1381505704 https://cases.justia.com/new-york/other-courts/2013-ny-slip-...

huac 10y ago

"the law under which you are suing does not exist" but short of one of these it's pretty easy to make a plausible case. the standard in civil cases is 'preponderance of evidence' rather than 'beyond a reasonable doubt'

nxzero 10y ago
Preponderance of the Evidence vs. Beyond a Reasonable Doubt: http://www.legalmatch.com/law-library/article/preponderance-of-the-evidence-vs-beyond-a-reasonable-doubt.html http://www.legalmatch.com/law-library/article/preponderance-...

CPLX 10y ago

Typical basic motions to dismiss usually fall into these main categories: 1. This isn't the right court (jurisdiction) 2. We're not the right parties (standing/jurisdiction) 3. It's too late (statute of limitations) 4. No law has been broken (failure to state claim) 5. Nobody was really harmed (failure to state claim) Typically it's numbers 4 and 5 that would matter for a frivolous lawsuit. If you want to see what that kind of lawsuit and a successful motion to dismiss look like here's a good example: https://cases.justia.com/new-york/other-courts/2013-ny-slip-op-32402-u.pdf?ts=1381505704 https://cases.justia.com/new-york/other-courts/2013-ny-slip-...