Temporarily Stopping a Lawsuit for Medical Reasons

Question

If the entity prosecuting a lawsuit or the entity defending a lawsuit becomes unable to do the necessary work in that lawsuit due to medical reasons: What is the proper way to let the court know? Send the judge a letter explaining the medical reason? Notify the court the party is physically incapable? Ask the court to halt proceedings until the party has resumed their health? Or, what?

Exactly how much of one's medical history must be shared to halt a case for medical reasons?

---So, does one do a continuance for each thing pending and is there a limit on how long a continuance can be?

Answer 1

You may file a motion for a continuance (here is a sample help page). You have to provide as much information as is required to persuade the judge to grant the continuance. Nobody knows exactly how much information that is, and probably only your lawyer (I assume you are doing this yourself) would have a reasonable idea. Simply saying "I can't cope" is insufficient, and something that implies an open-ended delay ("Can we put this on hold until they discover a cure?") will not suffice.