Zion improper benefits allegations are back from the dead, again

[Sixthman]

Requests for Admission are a standard part of written discovery (along with interrogatories and document production requests) in civil litigation. You would not see these in criminal cases, which is why you haven't seen it on Law & Order.

The most common use of RFAs is authentication of documents or other evidence. Parties must establish that every piece of evidence is authentic before it can be admitted into evidence. You would do that by witness testimony at trial, but it's boring for the jury and gets repetitive fast (most trials will involve hundreds of exhibits). RFAs usually come right at the close of discovery (the timing can vary, but for reference, discovery closes 60 days before trial in my jurisdiction), so the parties don't have to authenticate via witness testimony and piss off the judge and the jury. They can also been done for specific facts that aren't in dispute. You have to have a valid reason to deny a request. You cannot deny one just because it's unfavorable to your case. The court will sanction you for doing so.

These are poor RFAs that Zion will deny. Pretty much all the requests I saw are asking Zion to admit the legal argument Ford is making. Those will almost always be properly denied. Proper requests would ask for admissions on the specific facts that, when taken together, establish your legal theory. Ford probably doesn't have any of those, though. If you've seen it, think of the house of cards analogy in My Cousin Vinny. Proper RFAs should ask for admissions for the individual cards, so you can build the house at trial or in a motion for summary judgment. Improper RFAs ask for admissions that the house was properly built. Ford appears to be doing the latter.

Either the lawyers are bad, or this is a desperation move like Owen Meany describes. The only way Ford can prevail is if she can establish that Zion was not a student athlete when she signed him. Since Zion officially still had NCAA eligibility when she signed him--IIRC, after he declared for the draft but before the deadline to withdraw from it--she is trying to argue that Zion lost his eligibility by taking the improper benefits.

Ford also might be pushing this narrative hard because she may have committed a felony when she signed Zion.

Equally important and being misreported everywhere within the media, is that the person propounding the Request for Admission does not by propounding it allege that it is true, but rather, is suggesting it might be true and it might support their case if it were. It is being widely reported, including on the main page of DBR, as an allegation.