I wanted to warn my fellow attorneys of an unprofessional tactic used by several attorneys at Indianapolis Corporation Counsel, i.e. City Legal.
When the deadline comes to file an answer to a complaint, a City Legal attorney will contact the Plaintiffs attorney to ask for more time to file an "answer" or a "responsive pleading." As a professional courtesy, we attorneys almost always agree additional times when an attorney makes a request.
But what City Legal is doing is taking advantage of this professional courtesy to buy time to prepare a Motion to Dismiss, which is not a responsive pleading under the trial rules. Usually the Motion to Dismiss will be filled with bogus arguments where the city's attorneys proceed to argue point by point the merits of the facts alleged, citing summary judgment cases in support of the City's motion to dismiss, all the while ignoring notice pleading rules.
This is the kind of unethical trick that gives attorneys a bad name. One would think Samantha Karn, the head of Office of Corporation Counsel, would put a stop to this unprofessional practice. But thus far, it hasn't happened. So I wanted to let my attorneys know, do not agree toenlargement requests to answer a complaint that are made by Corporation Counsel attorneys.