Trials, Tribulations, And Managing An Unknown Contact

So this afternoon I went to Pontiac District Court for the case that never ends.

The case was originally set for trial in 2020.  Since then it has been adjourned over 8 times. We're now on our third judge: The first judge who did the adjournments retired, so we had a stand-in for one hearing, and now are assigned to the newest judge on the Court who appears to be a pretty bright judge who actually reads the briefs and follows the law.

The original judge who retired did not want to hear the case and adjourned it every single time Defendant came up with any excuse including refusing to do it by Zoom and demanding the trial be live when the court was closed for Covid etc.

Defendant had then got counsel, expensive counsel I might add, and then the judge adjourned the case yet again, and they filed a ridiculous motion for summary disposition to dismiss the case - 3 years after it was first set for trial and 4 years after it was filed. That motion was what we were fighting about today. 

This was a continuation from the last fight over the same motion  from the stand-in judge who over two months ago had asked for supplemental briefs on an issue neither side cared about or thought was a problem, because it was not a problem, but this judge thought it was and wants us to adjourn and brief it.

In short, my argument, and a correct argument it was, was they had waived the opportunity for even doing a motion for summary disposition as they did not raise the issue in their answer which means it doesn't get heard so we don;t even need to bother responding to their nonsense in their motion.

Much fun ensued with them trying to dodge the fact that they had failed to raise it. But the judge pointed out that they had failed to raise it and the contract, such as it was, attached to their motion and my response and the supplements, didn't even say on it what they claimed it said.

Long story short, I won, their motion went down in flames, and we have yet another trial date for June of this year.  So, we may just get this thing heard 3 years after it was first set for trial.

Sheesh.

On the way out I chatted with my client and heard a bit of noise ahead.

Client went to his car and I walked on to mine a little farther up.

A guy a solid head taller than me started to approach, clearly sizing me up, and setting off some alarm bells, started with the "Can I ask you a question?" line.

I  gave him a quick once over and said "Sorry man, can't help you", and carried on my way keeping some distance.

He started again, I repeated the "Sorry man, can't help you" while keeping him in sight, and he then backed off and went on to bug the next person around. So that worked out well. Thanks to Lawdog for his teaching that technique quite some time ago.  Always something.