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tiarrafain88 · May 20, 2013, 09:23 AM

Hi! I'm in custody court representing myself. Im the mother. Do you know how I could file a motion of discovery in family court? (Virginia) I can't find anything.

Thanks, Tiarra

ScottGem · May 20, 2013, 09:47 AM

First, its not good idea to piggyback your question on another thread. To avoid confusion I've moved your question to its own thread.

Family courts tend to be less formal. Is the other party represented by counsel? I would just draw up a list of thing you want the other party to provide and present it to the judge.

tiarrafain88 · May 20, 2013, 12:32 PM

Sorry. I didn't know that's what I was doing. I thought it would be a direct message to you. But no the other party doesn't have a lawyer yet, but I expect that they will hire one as they are pretty incapable of speaking without sounding "ghetto" in front of the judge. We did a 3 hour trial in January and I represented myself, and I totally spanked there 3500.00 lawyer so I'm confident that I can hold my own, but I don't know how to file this motion. I know there is no specific document but I don't know what format it needs to be in, if any.

ScottGem · May 20, 2013, 12:34 PM

Here's an example of one for SC. Has you can see its pretty generic.

http://sc.fd.org/Motion%20for%20Disc...ion%20Form.pdf

AK lawyer · May 20, 2013, 06:28 PM

Originally Posted by ScottGem

Here's an example of one for SC. Has you can see its pretty generic.

http://sc.fd.org/Motion%20for%20Disc...ion%20Form.pdf

Scott, the example to which you linked is in US District Court, not state court, and it's for a criminal case. OP's case, one for custody, is in state court, and more importantly, is a civil case, not criminal.

Normally, Tarrafain88, you would make discovery requests on the opposing party. If s/he doesn't have an attorney, you would send them to the opposing party. Such requests might include requests for production, interrogatories, and requests for admissions. Or you might schedule a deposition of the party &/or their witness(es). When and if they fail to respond with the information you requests (except that requests for admissions are deemed admitted if no response is given), within the time given in the civil rules for your jurisdiction, then you would file a motion with the court asking that the court compel the opposing party to give you the requested information.

Look in Part 4, here.