SILVIO SALDANA VS. SHIVANI SUTARIA

Summary: Attorney Sonia Ahmad represents the defendants. Defendants served discovery and plaintiff answered.

Over six months later defendants filed a motion to compel. The judge said the motion had to be filed within 45 days unless the parties agreed in writing to a specific later date. There was no agreement and attorney Ahmad could point to no specific later date allowing the motion.

The judge then denied the motion and imposed sanctions of $790 for bringing an untimely motion.



From the Judge and Court File:

Sonia Ahmad of Bremer Whyte Brown and O'Meara represents the defendants.




Discovery was served on plaintiff, which plaintiff answered on November 14, 2017.

Defendant had 45 days (or until about the end of December) to file a motion to compel.




Attorney Ahmad, though, filed a motion to compel over six months later on May 30, 2018.

Plaintiff's counsel provided an email showing he proposed a motion deadline on April 30th, which Ms. Ahmad agreed to. Sonia Ahmad, stated in a declaration she thought this was a deadline for providing discovery responses, not a deadline for filing a motion.

The judge said regardless, there was no written agreement to allow Sonia Ahmad to file a motion on May 30th.




The motion was thus untimely and denied. The judge then issued $790 in sanctions.



In an interesting twist, the tentative ruling from the court says no sanctions were awarded.




Plaintiff's attorney filed a declaration with the court stating a Bremer Whyte Brown and O'Meara attorney made a request to have a hearing to contest the tentative ruling. He said the notice to himself was improper, but since the request for a court hearing was made plaintiff sought sanctions of $2449.




The email sent, five minutes before the deadline, by Bremer Whyte Brown and O'Meara said "Please allow this email to serve as our notice of our intent to contest the court's tentative ruling denying our motion to compel plaintiff's further discovery responses. We request oral arguments tomorrow morning and will appear tomorrow at 9:00am in Department 3 at the San Mateo County Superior Court House located at 400 County Center in Redwood City."





Lawzilla Commentary:

Although the judge ordered sanctions against defendants and not attorney Sonia Ahmad or the Bremer Whyte Brown and O'Meara law firm, in our opinion this was attorney error. We would be surprised if Bremer Whyte Brown and O'Meara did not pay the sanctions.

The tentative ruling seemed quite clear about why the motion was denied. We cannot fathom what defense counsel wanted to argue.

But it cost them $790. We sincerely hope Bremer Whyte Brown and O'Meara did not bill their client for the hearing which caused their client to get sanctioned.

Would you hire Sonia Arata / Sonia Ahmad to be your attorney?

To us this seems as clear cut as the judge said: the motion was untimely. Ms. Ahmad missed the deadline for her client to compel further discovery responses.

That is one error.

But then the error, in our opinion, is compounded by requesting a court hearing. The judge did not seem to be amused as she changed her tentative ruling from no sanctions to imposing $790 in sanctions upon defendants.

On the other hand, the attorney can point to the fact $2449 in sanctions were not granted.

Note: Many people can have the same name. It is possible that a different Sonia Ahmad is the defendant in these cases:

The People of the State of California vs. SONIA AHMAD - July 27, 2018 - Charge of violating Vehicle Code section 23123.5(a) "A person shall not drive a motor vehicle while holding and operating a handheld wireless telephone or an electronic wireless communications device unless the wireless telephone or electronic wireless communications device is specifically designed and configured to allow voice-operated and hands-free operation, and it is used in that manner while driving."







The People of the State of California vs. SONIA AHMAD - May 21, 2018 - Charge of violating Vehicle Code section 14600(a) "Whenever any person after applying for or receiving a driver's license moves to a new residence, or acquires a new mailing address different from the address shown in the application or in the license as issued, he or she shall within 10 days thereafter notify the department of both the old and new address."







The People of the State of California vs. SONIA TANVEER AHMAD - August 3, 2015 - Charge of violating Vehicle Code section 22349(a) "(a) Except as provided in Section 22356, no person may drive a vehicle upon a highway at a speed greater than 65 miles per hour."

Sonia Arata / Sonia Ahmad was admitted to the California Bar in 2011. Bar Number 276347. For the above case the attorney information was:

Bremer Whyte Brown and Omeara
300 Frank H. Ogawa Plaza 355
Oakland, California 94612

Law School: Golden Gate University

It now appears Sonia Ahmad has changed her name to Sonia Arata and changed her employment:

The California State Bar is showing Sonia Ahmad with bar number 276347.



Choosing that attorney brings up this page for Sonia Arata with the same bar number 276347:

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.