"The king's heart is in the hand of the LORD,
as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will."
Proverbs 21:1
We received an email from our attorney today. I would venture to say that this is the first formal letter we have received from him since he was retained over two years ago; discounting our retainer agreement that is. I think this is what one might refer to as a CYA "Cover Your Attorney" letter.
On January 7th a Default Judgment "prove-up" hearing was held; a Default Judgment was granted to us by the judge that same day, in the amount of $1,177,500.
As a result of the ongoing arrogance of defense counsel; although they knew the January 7th hearing was scheduled, they elected not to attend the hearing in order to contest the judgment at that time. Instead, they simply wasted the court's time and chose to engage in yet another series of calculated delays, and abuse of the judicial system.
You can almost picture all of these overpaid, pious and self-loving attorneys, rocked back in their big overstuffed leather chairs; cigar in mouth as they fold up one legal motion after another like paper gliders aimed to hit the Parker County Clerks office with the synchronized precision of the Blue Angels. Bam, bam, bam...
My favorite post on the website was:
1ST SUPPLEMENT TO DEF'S REPLY TO PLNTF'S RESP TO DEF MOT FOR NEW TRIAL AND MOT TO SET ASIDE DEFAULT JDGMNT
Finally on March 3rd a hearing was held for defense counsel to present their argument in opposition to the Default Judgment, arguing case law. And, during the hearing the defense counsel pulled a rabbit out of their hat; otherwise referred to in this case as a "hyper-technicality."
Apparently the return of service from the process server, did not include a notarization or a description of his official capacity. So what defense counsel did was sit on the serviced petition and not answer because this is a game they admittedly play all the time. In fact, they told the judge that very thing during the hearing, which apparently ticked off the judge; or so our attorney related.
So even though the defendant's admitted to receiving their petition; and admitted to signing for receipt of their petition; and admitted to giving said petition to their lawyers; who admitted to receiving said petitions . . they refused to answer them within the allotted timeline under current law.
Nonetheless, that being the case, there is a possibility that; should the judge stand with the judgment and rule in our favor; case law may afford defense counsel victory if it is overturned in appellate court.
According to our attorney, the court “seemed” favorable to our position, and "chewed" out defense counsel for playing games. Defense counsel agreed that their clients were served; and it is supported that they were served properly. However, the hyper-technicality of the process server's signature throws a little wrench in the mix and the judge has now taken the matter under advisement. And, we wait again.
On Friday, one day after the hearing; we received a telephone call from our attorney telling us that defense counsel had agreed to an early trial date of June 14th "IF" we would be willing to an agreed order setting the Default Judgment aside prior to the judge making a ruling. We told our attorney that we wanted to take the weekend to discuss the matter and pray. He chuckled, as usual, mocking our faith.
Monday morning Michael contacted our attorney and informed him of our decision to forego the deal with defense counsel, and instead, await the judge's ruling. Thus, the reason for the "CYA" letter we would later receive from our attorney.
The bottom line is that we have been assured trial dates and settlement offer proposals to no avail for the past two years. Now it is time to trust in the Judge of all judges, and follow peace as we know it.
