QUESTION
Pro se plaintiff agrees to meet defense counsel at defendants office, and now the attorney is asking me to meet the defendant there instead...
Asked on Jul 23rd, 2014 on Civil Litigation - Ohio
More details to this question:
I am a pro se litigant in a civil action in federal district court against numerous city and county officials. One of the defendants is the county sheriff. I was asked to meet the defendants attorney at the sheriffs office to copy some fragile documents that could not be scanned, and i agreed to do that. But now the defendant's attorney is asking me to meet the actual defendant at the Sheriff's office to reproduce copies which he will in turn provide to his counsel. How appropriate is this request? I expected to meet the attorney there, but now i am being asked to meet the defendant there instead. I had not expected to meet the sheriff again until his deposition. Any advice?
1 ANSWER
If you're truly uncomfortable, you should inform the Court and maybe the Court will order that someone from defendants' counsel's office deal with you, rather than the Sheriff himself. However, I don't find the circumstances unusual. I would often not be at my client's office if opposing counsel was going to inspect something there, because my client would not want to pay for my time to do so. Here, there is no opposing counsel, since you are pro se, but I don't think that changes things much. Nothing in your questions suggests that the Sheriff is hostille, has tried to intimidate you, or any other reason why he can't handle the copying without an attorney.
Answered on Jul 23rd, 2014 at 2:07 PM