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A motion to strike can be made to remove part or all of a legal brief, evidence, or testimony from the record. Lawyers file it if the information is problematic, irrelevant, incorrect, or defamatory. The judge rules on the matter after both parties have been heard. Written motions can be filed before the trial, and oral motions can be made during the trial. Jurors may retain information despite the judge’s instructions. Lawyers must file motions in an orderly manner.
A motion to strike is a request that can be made by either party to a legal case to ask that part or all of the brief filed by the other party be stricken and removed from the record. This includes complaints and responses to those complaints. Strike motions can also be made to remove evidence or testimony from the record.
Lawyers file a strike motion because they believe the information or statement in question is problematic in any way. It may not be relevant to the case. It could be clearly incorrect, and inadmissible under the rules of the court, or defamatory. A person filing a walkout motion must explain why the motion was filed and provide evidence to support the request. The target of the motion has an opportunity to respond. Once both parties have had a chance to be heard, the judge can rule on the matter.
Before a trial even begins, attorneys for both sides prepare documents that are seen by the other, including complaints and responses. Written walkout motions may be filed during this time to remove objectionable parts of a complaint or response so that these matters are clarified before attorneys meet in court. Once affected, the information cannot be taken to court and is no longer considered part of the case.
In court, a motion to strike may be made orally to the judge if an attorney has an objection to a statement made by a witness. In this case, the judge reviews the situation to decide whether or not the motion is legally valid. If so, the judge indicates that the motion has been granted and orders the jury to ignore the hearing. Legal scholars have pointed out that regardless of the intentions of such instructions, jurors inevitably retain information and that it can become prejudicial in nature. If a witness has a rash on the evidence stand that gets hit, jurors will still remember what happened.
Courtroom dramas often replay the strike motion in the courtroom setting, with lawyers jumping up and down and yelling “objection” during testimony. Despite what the TV shows show, lawyers must file motions to strike in an orderly manner that doesn’t disrupt the court, and some of the more imaginative activities depicted on television aren’t seen in real courtrooms. Lawyers can also be fined in contempt of court for violations of courtroom procedure.
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