Atty paris

• Remedial or Procedural Laws

  Laws relating to remedies or modes of procedure which do not create new or take away vested rights, but only operate in furtherance of the remedy or confirmation of such rights
• Remedial Laws may operate retroactively as to pending proceedings even without expression to that effect
• Rules of Procedure can apply to cases pending at the time of their enactment
• Statutes regulating the procedure of the courts will be applied on actions undetermined at the time of their effectivity
• Remedial Rights


  Rights that only operate to further the Rules of Procedure or to confirm vested rights
• Judicial courtesy


  Exercised by suspending a lower court's proceedings although there is no injunction or an order from a higher court
• Purpose of judicial courtesy

  To avoid mooting the matter raised in the higher court, exercised as a matter of respect and for practical considerations
• Jurisdiction is conferred by law and lack of it affects the very authority of the court to take cognizance of and render judgment on the action
• Objections to jurisdiction cannot be waived and may be brought at any stage of the proceedings even on appeal
• Parties may be barred from assailing the jurisdiction of the court over the subject matter


  If it took them an unreasonable and unexplained length of time to object to the court's jurisdiction
• This is to discourage the deliberate practice of parties in invoking the jurisdiction of a court to seek affirmative relief, only to repudiate the court's jurisdiction after failing to obtain the relief sought
• Objections to jurisdiction over the person of the defendant must be raised at the earliest possible opportunity; otherwise, the objection is deemed waived
• The Supreme Court will not entertain a direct invocation of its jurisdiction unless the redress desired cannot be obtained in the appropriate lower courts, and exceptional and compelling circumstances justify the resort to the extraordinary remedy of a writ of certiorari
• In appeals in civil cases, the Court of Appeals may only receive evidence when it grants a new trial based on newly discovered evidence
• Newly discovered evidence


  Evidence which could not have been discovered prior to the trial by the exercise of due diligence and which is of such character as would probably change the result
• Counsel of the deceased party must inform the court of the death of his or her client in criminal actions
• Effects of a defendant being declared in default

  Loses standing in court, deprived of right to take part in trial and present evidence, forfeits rights as party litigant
• A party declared in default shall nevertheless be entitled to notice of subsequent proceedings
• Remedy against an order of default

  Motion to set aside order of default upon proper showing that failure to answer was due to fraud, accident, mistake, or excusable negligence and that he has a meritorious defense
• Remedies against a judgement by default

  • Motion for new trial
  • Petition for relief from judgement
  • Appeal from the judgment
  • Special civil action for certiorari
  • Annulment of judgment
• Judgment on the pleadings


  Proper when the answer filed fails to tender any issue, or otherwise admits the material allegations in the complaint
• Summary judgment


  The answer filed tenders issues as specific denials and affirmative defenses are pleaded, but the issues raised are sham, fictitious, or otherwise not genuine
• Forum shopping


  The act of a litigant who repetitively avails of several judicial remedies in different courts, simultaneously or successively, all substantially founded on the same transactions and the same essential facts and circumstances, and all raising substantially the same issues either pending in, or already resolved adversely by some other court, to increase his chances of obtaining a favorable decision
• Once clearly established that forum shopping was committed willfully and deliberately by a party or his or her counsel, the case may be summarily dismissed with prejudice, and the act shall constitute direct contempt and a cause for administrative sanctions
• A motion is not presumed to have already been acted upon by its mere filing. Prudence dictates that a party await the court's action on his Motion to Withdraw, before considering his Motion for Reconsideration as withdrawn
• When a party files a Motion to Withdraw, he effectively submits the withdrawal of his Motion for Reconsideration to the court's sound discretion
• A party who files a Petition for Review before the Court of Appeals despite a pending Motion for Reconsideration before the RTC is guilty of Forum Shopping
• Upon a party's filing of a Manifestation stating that he considered his Motion for Reconsideration before the RTC as abandoned, he can no longer be accused of forum shopping
• Courts cannot grant a relief not prayed for in the pleadings or in excess of what is being sought by the party
• Rationale for the rule that courts cannot grant relief not prayed for


  To prevent surprise to the defendant and ensure due process by providing the opposing party an opportunity to be heard with respect to the proposed relief
• Lack of verification in pleadings is not a jurisdictional defect, courts may simply order the correction of a defective verification
• Facts relayed to the counsel by the client would be insufficient for counsel to swear to the truth of the allegations in a pleading
• The requirement that allegations of a complaint must provide the measure of recovery is to prevent surprise to the defendant
• Verification is merely a formal, not jurisdictional requirement. It will not result in the outright dismissal of the case since courts may simply order the correction of a defective verification
• Verification


  Intended to secure an assurance that the allegations in the pleading are true and correct and not the product of the imagination or a matter of speculation and that the pleading is filed in good faith
• Where a motion to dismiss is denied, the proper recourse is for the movant to file an Answer. Nevertheless, where the order denying the motion to dismiss is tainted with grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack or excess of jurisdiction, the movant may assail such order via a Rule 65 (i.e., Certiorari, Prohibition, and/or Mandamus Petition)
• Rules on discovery


  Accorded broad and liberal interpretation precisely to enable the parties to obtain the fullest possible knowledge of the issues and facts, including those known only to their adversaries, in order that trials may not be carried on in the dark
• Judicial compromise agreement


  In the nature of both an agreement between the parties and a judgement on the merits. Hence, it is covered by the Civil Code provisions on contracts
• A judicial compromise is regarded as a determination of the controversy between the parties and has the force and effect of a final judgment. It may neither be disturbed not set aside except in cases where there is forgery or when either of the parties' consent has been vitiated
• A judgment based on compromise agreement involving support, custody and visitation rights may be modified after the lapse of the period of appeal, even in the absence of fraud or forgery