Of course, in practice, whenever you file a motion to suspend (or motion for continuance or motion for time), and if you’re new, your senior partner will lecture you: don’t presume the court will grant it, until granted, you have to show up . Lecture lecture.
In practice however, in ordinary cases (that is, in ordinary cases, not in so-callled “high profile” cases) you usually give opposing counsel paňero/ paňero/ the courtesy of an advanced copy of your motion for continuance and give a friendly phone call – in real life and in ordinary cases, lawyers and opposing counsels become friends in the course of the trial. Then you inform the clerk of court in advance that you and opposing counsel have spoken of other trial dates etc. etc. , the clerk of court will confirm with opposing counsel, etc. etc. it makes the workings of the court more efficient when you prepare for contingencies before the hearing, the clerk of court can accommodate more cases in the calendar, and it makes the job of the judge less stressful …
Trade secrets. that’s in ordinary cases; in so-called “high profile” cases, sometimes, the lawyers get on each others nerves; for some reason, lawyers get too stressed out when millions and millions of people are watching their every move and thousands of people want to talk to them and they need to talk, study, read, write, prep, meet up, thousands of times endlessly .
The better policy and tactic now is to concentrate on building up the case against her (for plunder or otherwise) – focus on gathering the primary documents:
•contracts,
•vouchers,
•checks,
•deposit slips,
•transaction slips,
•bank statements,
•photos,
•videos,
•and other documentary evidence cited by the witnesses and by the COA report;
and object evidence: equipment, infrastructure, vehicles, real and personal properties, until the evidence is more than enough for a primafacie case – instead of relying on wild talk of her possible offer of testimony.
You will need to secure documents and witnesses from the banks and the clearing houses. Fast. Now. Important.
Don’t get distracted.
— To be charged with a public official or public officials if for plunder (without prejudice to forfeiture proceedings). And, oh, important: don’t forget to add “John Does” when you craft the complaint; or as what other lawyers do in other criminal cases, you can put: “John Doe, Juan P. Doe, Bong Doe, Bongbong Doe, Jinggoy Doe, Greg Doe, and other John and Jeanne Does”… more important, make sure your Information (formal charge), and not just the complaint, contains John Does.
Make sure the Information complies with all the elements and all the terms of the criminal statute – plunder requires a series of predicate acts that are also criminal in nature, spell out what those overt acts are — open the statute books when you’re crafting the Info (do not copy and paste), make a back-and forth- and refer every line to it — even if you think it’s perfect, show it to other criminal trial experts and CPA-lawyers; the Information (formal charge) will make your case rise or fall in the preliminary motions and throughout the presentation of evidence…
