Questions on Discovery and Discovery Cutoff

[sandyclaus]

I'm in California, and this is in regards to Califonia Discovery Law (Unlawful Detainer case, County of Los Angeles).

I am currently going thru a civil trial in which the other party has served me wih Requests for Admission and Forms Interrogatories. Because they were mailed to me and not personally served, I have until July 27th to respond.

I am trying to do this on my own without having to pay for assistance from the attorney that helps me, so I'm researching what I need to know in order to do that myself. So far so good.

My questions are these:

First, the Requests for Admissions state that "Plaintiff demands a written response 5 days from the date of service of this demand and the actual documents are to be produced no later than July 27, 2009.."

The last time I checked, a Request for Admissions is NOT a Request for Production of Documents. One is utilized to get the other party to admit or deny a statement or fact in question or the genuineness of a specified document, the other is utilized to GET the specific document requested.

The request I received IS NOT a Request for Production of Documents, and nowhere else on the document does it even mention that I must actually GIVE them documents, only admit or deny their existence.

Can they, through the existing request, require me to comply with the demand for production of the documents (especially because they haven't even specified WHAT documents to produce)?

Second question involves discovery cutoff dates. It has been over a month since our last hearing and the other party is just now getting around to beginning their discovery. I figured I'd wait to see when they started before serving my own discovery requests.

The discovery cutoff says that discovery is completed on the date discovery is due. I know this limits further discovery on the OTHER side, but am I prevented from starting my own discovery request after that due date? Does their cutoff date apply to me as well? (I'm trying to figure out if I have to rush and finish my discovery requests over the weekend and get them all served on Monday as well.)

Thanks in advance for your prompt responses, y'all.

on point one the admissions request is not relevant to your production of documents, you are correct