Ramirez v Lam Los Angeles County Superior Court Case Number 18STCV02610.


From the Los Angeles court online case records it is Lawzilla's understanding the following occurred:

Attorney Peter M. Cho from the Law Office of John Ye is the attorney for the plaintiff in a motor vehicle personal injury lawsuit.




According to the Los Angeles case docket, Peter Cho is listed as plaintiff's attorney.




During the lawsuit defendant noticed plaintiff's deposition on a date agreed on by attorney Cho's law firm. The date was six months in the future.

The date was then continued another three months.

The plaintiff did not appear at the deposition because he was in Mexico and defendant filed a motion to compel and sought sanctions.

The judge ordered the deposition for a specific date.

The court also tentatively sanctioned the plaintiff and plaintiff's counsel of record $350.




At the hearing on the motion to compel attorney Peter Cho appeared.

The judge affirmed the tentative ruling as the court's final ruling issuing sanctions.

Then according to the court Peter Cho, Esq., made a request for the court to strike his own client's lawsuit because he had been deported.

"Counsel for Plaintiff informs the Court that his client, Plaintiff Agustin Diaz Ramirez was deported. Counsel for Plaintiff's request or suggestion that the Court set an Order to Show Cause as to why the Complaint should not be stricken is denied. "

We have never seen an attorney ask a judge to dismiss their own client's lawsuit.

Even if Mr. Cho's client was deported to Mexico, he was still allegedly injured in the auto accident.

He would still have a case.

If attorney Cho's client wanted to dismiss his lawsuit he could authorize Cho to file a dismissal.

Peter Cho and his law firm could also seek to withdraw as counsel of record.

But we have never seen an attorney, with a fiduciary duty to their client and to do everything in their client's interest, to ask the court to strike their client's lawsuit.

We reached out to Mr. Cho to get a behind-the-scenes explanation of what happened. This is what he said:

"If my client did not appear at the deposition because he was out of the country, then the defendant could move for terminating sanctions. I could not file a motion to withdraw because the client was communicating with me. However, my client had already authorized me to dismiss his case since he could not return. The OSC would have merely set a deadline by which to do so."

Does this make sense to you?

It still does not make much sense to us to ask the judge to strike a complaint. A judge is not going to strike a complaint simply because a party is out of state or out of the country.

If the client authorized dismissal just file the dismissal. Just file it. The client does not need to sign a dismissal. Or just tell the judge the case is being dismissed and then dismiss it.

Instead, the judge was not told that.

Is there even a motion plaintiff's counsel can file to strike their own client's lawsuit? We are not sure that even exists, and may be why the judge summarily denied the request.

Peter Cho was admitted to the California Bar in 2001. Bar Number 213870.

Peter M. Cho Law, Inc.
PO Box 3585
Pls Vrds Pnsl, CA 90274-9509

Law School: New York University

Sanctions are Recoverable as a Judgment - Analysis of the little known fact that sanctions awarded in a lawsuit can be enforced as their own separate judgment. Surprise someone by putting a lien on their bank account, home, wages, etc.