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How did the writ process help you obtain a favorable result for your client?

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Normally in civil litigation, you have to wait a verdict in the trial court, a judgment in the trial court before any errors of the trial proceedings are taken up by the court of appeal and the appeals process. There is, however, what’s called an extraordinary writ procedure that allows a part to seek an immediate review in the court of appeal before the end of the case in the trial court. And you have to consider these kind of writs very carefully because they involve a lot of work and expanse to prepare and because they’re supposed to be extraordinary relief, they’re usually not successful. In this case, we weighed the cost and the potential benefits, the cost of proceeding to a lengthy trial in the trial court that would take more than a month to complete and decided that because the law was clear in the Golin case that we should proceed with a writ. And it’s a strategy that paid off very well for the clients since the court of appeal granted the writ and the city of Palo Alto and the individual police officer didn’t have to go through a month long jury trial.

California civil litigation defense attorney David Newdorf discusses the writ process.

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