QUESTION
Does the opposing attorney have the legal obligation to inform me of the fact I am waiving all rights?
Asked on Oct 20th, 2016 on Landlord and Tenant Law - California
More details to this question:
I did not understand I was waiving my rights to an appeal or making any motions to affect any other outcome of the trial. The judge did not allow me to present any evidence of discrimination, harassment and malicious intent after two years of suffering violent and extreme abuse and harassment to pressure me to leave. The judge contended none of that mattered. He insisted the only pertinent point was the landlord wanted his property and blocked every effort to communicate my points of defense. The judge was actually hostile toward me and intimidating. I was extremely shaken and really not mentally stable after two years of abuse. I have discovered there are discrepancies in the filing. The landlord maintained I lived in motor home #2 and that I was an independent sole tenant. The truth is that I live in motorhome #2 with my ex-fiancé who pays the rent! The landlord has made discriminatory rules against me (pertaining only to me and no other tenants) discriminating against me for my handicap and as a woman telling me repeatedly that "women" do not belong in this yard (commercial trucking yard)! Landlord did not try to quench disputes and hostility of other tenants; but rather actually incited them; instructing the other tenants to "throw" cat feces at my motorhome door. The violence and hostility continued to grow to the point one of the truckers purposefully almost ran me down, coming 1" away from me with his moving 18 wheeler. He also pushed and dragged my truck 8 feet because it was in "his way." The landlord refused to put anyone in their place and actually fed the hostility. The landlord has poisoned my two dogs and numerous cats. He entered my motorhome for the express purpose of destroying it so that I would be forced to more. He damaged the faucet which after a period of time proved to make the motor home uninhabitable due to mold.
1 ANSWER
In your long e-mail, you fail to mention what opposing counsel did, so we can nor answer your question. Nor do we know on what grounds you were being evicted so can not answer whether the judge was correct in excluding your defenses. Without a witness, the judge would not believe the landlord told others to do the things mentioned against you. I suspect the judge probably thought you were just talking at length about irrelevant matters. If you filed an answer without bringing these matters up in the answer, the judge would probably rule you could not do so at trial because you did not give the landlord any notice of the claims so he could not prepare to defend against them. Also, the judge might believe that you could sue the landlord in a separate suit for the harassment but that it was not a defense for not paying rent.
Answered on Nov 16th, 2016 at 4:41 AM