Answer

Contrary to popular belief, an attorney cannot just take one or two pieces of evidence straight to the court to have the matter thrown out. If he claimed the sale as income on his 1995 taxes and then tried to counter that with the allegedly unpaid and undated promissory note, then the attorney would use this as part of his evidence together with all of the other evidence to file a "Motion for Summary Judgment" (where he will argue that there are no disputed material facts and as such considering those facts in the best light towards the non-moving party you are entitled to a judgment as a matter of law) which is generally not done until the close of the discovery period to ensure that the other side cannot argue that it is in the process of uncovering more evidence to dispute your contentions and as such the MSJ should be denied. These cases often do drag on for more than a year and that is just the unfortunate way the legal system works.

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Expert:	PaulMJD
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Answered:	10/1/2009

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