One of the most dangerous assumptions in legal matters is that contacting a lawyer protects your rights. People send an email to a law office or submit an online form and then breathe easier, believing the problem is now in someone's hands. Unless a lawyer has agreed to represent you and has told you what they will do, that assumption can be costly.

Deadlines run whether or not anyone is looking

Legal deadlines are set by statutes, court rules, contracts, and notices. They do not pause because you were thinking about calling someone, and they do not pause because you sent a message. Courts generally treat deadlines as strict, and missing one can mean losing a claim, a defense, or an appeal right.

Examples that matter to California individuals and businesses include:

  • Responding to a lawsuit. After a summons and complaint are served in a California civil case, the defendant generally has a limited number of days, often 30, to file a formal response. An email to the other side or to a lawyer does not satisfy it.
  • Statutes of limitations. These set the outside time limit to file certain claims. Examples include two years for many personal injury claims and four years for many written contract claims, with other periods for other claim types. The right period depends on the claim, and some claims accrue in ways that are not obvious.
  • Claims against public entities. Claims against government bodies often require a written claim within a short window, sometimes as little as six months, before any lawsuit can be filed.
  • Notice periods. Landlord and tenant notices, foreclosure notices, contract cure periods, and administrative appeals all contain their own clocks.
  • Appeals and post-judgment motions. These typically have short, firm deadlines that begin from specific events.

Why a message is not enough

There are three reasons an email or website form does not protect you.

First, it is not a filing. Deadlines for court action are met by filing in the proper court in the proper way, not by informing a lawyer or an opposing party.

Second, it may not create representation. An attorney-client relationship generally begins when the lawyer agrees to represent you, which in California is typically confirmed in a written agreement for matters above modest fees. An unanswered or unreviewed inquiry leaves you without a lawyer for any practical purpose. Many law offices say so explicitly on their websites, and ours does as well.

Third, messages can be missed, filtered, or misunderstood. Inboxes fail and spam filters misfire. A form submitted at midnight may not be read until the next business day, which may be too late if your deadline is that day.

What formal review looks like

Formal review means a licensed attorney has reviewed your documents, calculated the applicable dates, and confirmed in writing what the office will and will not do. It includes identifying which deadlines are fixed, which are extendable, and who is responsible for each step. It also means a plan for what happens if the deadline falls on a weekend, a court holiday, or a day when the court's e-filing system is unavailable.

How to protect your dates right now

  1. Write down every date on every notice, summons, letter, or order you have received, and note the date you received it.
  2. Do not rely on a single channel. If you contact a law office, call as well as write, and ask directly whether anyone has agreed to handle the matter and what the next step and date are.
  3. Ask for a written confirmation of the scope of representation and the deadlines the lawyer is tracking.
  4. Seek help early, since extensions and options are far easier to arrange before a deadline than after.
  5. Keep proof of when and how you sent anything, including delivery confirmations.

Triage is the fix

The healthiest habit is simple: when a notice arrives, treat it as a calendar event first and a legal question second. Triage is the process of identifying the earliest hard date and planning backward from it. Our intake process starts there for exactly this reason.

If you hold a notice, summons, or other document with a date on it, do not wait to see whether an email gets answered.

Have a deadline approaching? Contact our attorney for Deadline Triage today.

This article is general information, not legal advice, and does not create an attorney-client relationship. Consult a licensed attorney about your specific situation.