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Digital
Law Suits – Initiation Process
Initiation:
 Like
any other suit, Digital law sits also begin with the complainant filing
a complaint in the court. Technically a complainant is called
plaintiff in legal terms. The complaint or the plaint as it is
usually called must mention the name of the defendant (who is the
offender), the facts of the case, the offense, and the details of
damages and or relief sought. The plaint must state the grounds of
complaint and the legal and factual bases for filing the complaint. The
court through its process then issues summons on the defendant
notifying him about the suit and the relief and damages sought against
him.
The notice provides a time frame within which the defendant has to file
his reply to the plaint stating his defenses against the claims of the
plaintiff. The defendant can also challenge the jurisdiction of the
court sending the notice, so it is essential that the plaint is
properly filed with the court having proper jurisdiction on the matter
of complaint. Some courts have territorial jurisdictions while others
have not such limits.
Once the defendant files his replies while raising all his defenses he
will be denying almost ll the plaintiffs allegations. Alternately, the
defendant can choose to challenge the validity of the plaint by filing
his arguments for dismissal of the plaint. The digital law suit now
moves to the pre-trial stage. If the court dismisses the appeal of the
defendant by which the plaints validity has been challenged there is no
option for the defendant to defend himself in the court.
Usually courts require the parties to be represented by their lawyers
who file all the pleadings on behalf of their clients. Some of the
courts may require physical presence of the plaintiff when pleading are
filed.
Pre-Trial Stage:
During the pre-trial stages the Court may require both the parties, the
plaintiff and the defendant, to file their evidences, arguments and
statements before the court while servicing a copy to the other
party. This is required to eliminate surprises during trial and
give a chance to both the parties to prepare their arguments and
defenses during the trial. At this stage the parties are given
opportunities for out of court settlement and even realize the folly of
the suit and may even withdraw the suit at this stage. This ensures
that the precious time of court is not wasted. The parties may
additions to the documents already filed or make the required
modifications by filing additional arguments, claims and defenses at
this stage in response to the other party. A lot of cases get
ended here as the parties arrive at an out of court settlement and
withdraw the suit with the permission of the court after filing a
memorandum of settlement jointly signed by both the parties.
At this stage the parties may choose and pick a jury if they want to
have trial by jury otherwise the case will be taken up by a single
judge. Certain areas of digital law suits do not allow trial by jury,
in such cases the case is taken up by the trial judge.
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