The Judge will give RB and JP a month or so to find new counsel and will have no sympathy if they can't.
Okay Pima County, I take back all those nasty things I said about you; you finally put the Judge’s summary of the status conference on-line. So, we have some additional clarity as to what’s going on. Consider this as an addendum to my previous post. Here are a few relevant quotes.
“The Court puts Defendants on notice that, at this point, they are representing themselves after a month or so in which to find counsel. The Court notes it will treat the Defendants as it would anybody in the courtroom.”
Compare that to the language quoted above from one of my previous posts. It’s not that I offered any great any great insight, it’s just funny how the language tracks.
“IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that the Defendants shall update their disclosures and respond to the discovery that has been served on them and their counsel as outlined on Page Two of the Plaintiff’s Supplemental Motion for Sanctions by no later than Tuesday, August 07, 2018. With regards to the Plaintiff’s request to dismiss the counter-claim and enter a default on their complaint, IT IS ORDERED that request is DENIED without prejudice to the request being re-urged in the future.”
This was fairly predictable. This is the Judge giving the Defendants
one last chance to respond to the outstanding mandatory and non-mandatory discovery requests. If they don’t, it’s hard to imagine he won’t toss their Answer and Counterclaim. The more likely scenario is that they’ll respond in a half-assed and ineffectual way. At that point, will the Judge give them more time to clean up their responses? Hard to say; it depends on what they come up with.
“The Defendants are put on notice that if they fail to respond to the Motion for Sanctions, the Court may deem that to be a waiver and sanctions up to, and including, dismissal of the counterclaim may be entered against them.”
So, the Court is saying to RB and JP that it’s not enough to file your discovery responses, you must file a counter brief arguing against the Motion for Sanctions. In other words, argue to the court, citing relevant Arizona statutes and case law, why it shouldn’t impose the sanctions on you requested by CJP. Yeah, good luck with that.
“The Court notes that the Plaintiff has requested leave to depose the Defendants’ prior counsel. The Defendants oppose that request, therefore, IT IS ORDERED that Plaintiff’s request is DENIED without prejudice to being re-addressed at a later time.”
I think the Judge got it exactly right here. Using the crime fraud exception to break attorney client privilege is extremely rare. Attorney client privilege is considered one of the cornerstones of our judicial system. No Judge in his right mind would allow breaking that based on the mere allegation of one party. The fact that he denied that
without prejudice – meaning it isn’t a final ruling – is very encouraging. Basically what he’s saying to the Plaintiff is do your discovery, depose the Defendants, come up with a solid case of fraud and then we’ll talk.
“Mr. Palumbo requests clarification regarding whether reply deadlines will be pursuant to standard motions practice, which the Court confirms.”
There is a month between when the discovery responses are due and when the hearing is being held. Expect Plaintiff to use this time to come up with a killer reply brief citing all the ways Defendants’ responses are defective, again citing statutes and case law to argue why the answer and/or Counterclaim should not be dismissed and why the scumbags shouldn’t be required to pay attorney fees for failing to comply with Arizona discovery laws.
“IT IS ORDERED setting a Hearing re the Plaintiff’s Motion for Sanctions on Tuesday, September 04, 2018, at 9:00 a.m., in Division 01. Estimated time for hearing is one hour.”
I like this a lot. This is no 15 minute status conference; it’s the first full blown take the gloves off discovery fight. Hopefully, a lot of issues will be settled after that date. It’s hard to imagine this hearing will go well for the Defendants.
You’ll notice that the issue of the Defendants’ depositions was never addressed in the status conference. That makes a lot of sense. As I’ve noted several times, the depositions of RB and JP will be highly important in their destruction. A portion of the questions that will be posed to them during their depositions will be about their discovery responses, so it would be counterproductive to depose them before all the responses are completed.
So, here’s the bottom line: Mr. and Mrs. Whips are still in a world of hurt. There was not one thing that occurred in the last status conference and published summary harmful to CJP. Sure we want this to be over with sooner rather than later and Ron and his deranged girlfriend to be destroyed. We are still completely on track for that to happen, especially with the Defendants being
pro se. But these things take time and we have to be patient as the wheels of justice continue to grind.
