• Don’t save evidence for trial
Omitting evidence from your summary judgment opposition may create an advantage at trial – but only if the summary judgment is denied. The corporate attorneys are usually lawyers employed by businesses, corporations and organizations.
The most important goal is defeating the summary-judgment motion and – if the motion is lost – winning reversal on appeal. Hence, the possible benefit at trial from omitting evidence from your summary-judgment opposition is probably outweighed by the attendant risks. For example, holding back evidence may cause the trial court to grant summary judgment. Second, the evidence that was held back cannot properly be added to the record by a motion for new trial because that evidence was not “newly discovered” despite the plaintiff’s lawyer’s earlier due diligence. Third, holding back evidence hampers the appeal because that evidence will be unavailable to persuade the appellate court to reverse the judgment.
• Base your opposition on Aguilar
Base your opposition on the standards and rationales stated in Aguilar v. Atlantic Richfield Co. (2001) 25 Cal. 4th 826, 843-857. This decision is your best roadmap to current law on summary judgment, stating basic principles too numerous to discuss here.
• Make sufficient objections to defendant’s evidence, including expert declarations
Make all reasonable objections to the defendant’s evidence. For example, declarations must be based on personal knowledge, must show the declarant’s competence to testify to the matters stated, and must contain admissible evidence.
Requirements for objections
• Quote the specific evidence objected to.
State all possible grounds – a new ground cannot be added later on appeal.
• Address only one item of evidence at a time (no compound objections).
• Be in writing and be filed with your opposition, not at the hearing. Though section 437c allows objections at the hearing, by then it may be too late – the tentative ruling will have already issued, and the court will not appreciate having to consider new objections.
Written objections filed with the plaintiff’s opposition satisfy the statutory requirement that objections be made “at the hearing.”
You may lodge a hearsay objection to documents attached to a declaration.