What Is a Motion to Dismiss?

Since graduating from Albany Law School in 2008, Sarah Baia has demonstrated her aptitude in the field of workers’ compensation and provides representation to employers facing such claims in her work as a staff attorney at The Hartford. Sarah Baia works closely with insurers and the company’s claims partners to help them create defenses. The motion to dismiss is one of the most common defenses used in workers’ compensation claims, so here is a brief explanation of what it entails.

At its core, a motion to dismiss is an appeal to the court to throw out a case and is often used in place of filing an answer in response to a complaint. The motion is generally taken as a denial of the complaint, even though none is specifically given.

They are most commonly used to confront procedural issues related to the complaint filing. Commonly, this includes whether the complaint has been filed in the correct location, if it has been served in the proper manner, and whether the court itself holds any jurisdiction over the case.

The motion will usually be denied if it requires additional evidence to that which has already been presented in the case. Furthermore, the courts require the motion to confront issues that can be argued by both plaintiff and defendant. If the motion is denied, both parties will usually be asked to conduct a period of discovery, after which the issues covered in the motion to dismiss can be revisited in a motion for summary judgment.

Should the motion be granted, the plaintiff may still refile the complaint with adjustments made to cater to the issues covered in the motion for dismissal.