What to Do When the Other Side Withholds Evidence
What happens when a lawyer withholds evidence? I’m Tulsa Attorney James Wirth, and that’s the question that we have here. Actually, more specifically, the question is, what happens when a lawyer withholds evidence, other side’s lawyer withheld evidence, the court is seemingly ignorant to the facts and doing the wrong things? So, what do you do when the other side withholds evidence?
Scenario in Criminal Cases
If we’re talking about a criminal case, then the state does have an obligation to produce certain discovery materials, which can be requested by the defense. If they are withholding discovery materials, then that could be a Brady violation, it could be grounds to get a case dismissed or evidence suppressed. So, there is an obligation for a prosecutor to turn on certain things to the court.
Scenario in Civil Court
Outside of criminal cases, in civil court, the other side doesn’t really have any obligations to you. It’s an adversarial system. They’re gonna put in the things they wanna put in, and anything that you want to be put in, you or your attorney need to make your case to make sure that it gets entered. So, the obligation is not on the other side to make sure everything gets entered.
The obligation is on you to make sure that everything that you want entered that is relevant and material to the proceeding, that you work to try to get that entered. If things that you wanted to be entered are not entered because of that, the judge is making poor decisions, unfortunately, there may not be much that can be done about that because the obligation was on you to make sure that it gets entered.
Possible Recourse and Seeking Legal Advice
If you properly get it entered or the court disallows it from being entered, then you may look to see if there’s an opportunity to appeal it if there are grounds for an appeal based on the conduct and decisions of the judge. So, hopefully that answers your question. If you’ve got other questions related to Oklahoma law, you’re probably gonna wanna talk to an attorney privately and confidentially about those to get full legal advice.
Strategy Session with an Attorney
To get that scheduled with an attorney at my office, you can go online to MakeLawEasy.com. We offer an initial strategy session to discuss your case and provide you with the guidance you need.
