Two Types of Dispositive Motions

Jeffrey Douglas Kaliel is an experienced class action attorney who graduated from Yale Law School. A partner at Kaliel PLLC, Attorney Jeffrey Douglas Kaliel has won contested class certification motions, engaged in data-intensive discovery, and defended dispositive motions among other complex legal projects throughout his career.

Dispositive motions refer to a motion in a legal case that asks a court to dispose of a case in two ways. Either by making a summary judgment, which is entered by a court without a full trial, or by dismissing the case outright.

In many cases, dispositive motions are filed after the discovery process when one side thinks they have enough evidence and facts on their side to win the case outright without going through a full trial. In this case, the dispositive motion is referred to as a summary judgment motion. It should be noted that any issues of credibility cannot be decided by a judge and still require a jury trial.

The second type of dispositive motions, a motion to dismiss, is not meant to analyze the facts of the case. Rather, this type of motion is filed early in a case and questions the allegations themselves. Judges can either deny the motion and allow the case to proceed or agree that the allegation does not constitute a valid claim under the law and dismiss the case outright.