My Brief is filed! I'm not afraid of the mail anymore!

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

My opening brief had a drop-deadline of September 8, a day which found me up to my eyeballs in paper and incomplete things like Table of Contents, Table of Authorities, Index to the Appendix (which is the strange term the court uses for the record when it is prepared by the parties, vs. the clerk’s office.) I was a basket case. I threw it all into a box and headed to the clerk’s office to plead for another day. No good… just have to bring it in when it’s done, along with an Application for Relief from Default.

Noooooooooooooooooooooooo!

But I had no choice. So I finished it all, brought it in with said “Application” (which was kind of a mess, but so was I, having gone without sleep for three days at that point) and prayed.

A week goes by. No word. They have responded to every single thing I have ever filed wiht them (two writs, two motions, two applications for extensions) in 24 hours. Every single time. NOW they decide to string me along???

I was terrified. After all I’ve been through, if I’d blown my shot because I was ONE DAY LATE… holy mother of god I can’t even imagine how I would have handled that.

I filed a supplemental application, a little more together, a week after the first.

Nothing nothing nothing…

I wanted to throw up every time I heard the mailbox door slam shut after the mail carrier dropped the mail, and some days I just couldn’t look at all.

FINALLY, two days ago, word arrives: SAFE! The brief is accepted.

My next door neighbor, an attorney who has been just great throughout my ordeal, told me she thinks it took so long because they probably would have liked to skip a “Pro per” appeal, but then they read the brief. She said they probably thought: “No way, another crazy pro per…” then checked the record and found themselves saying “Holy crap, she’s not imagining things!” and decided they couldn’t pass it up.

Whatever it was, I’m beyond relieved. I felt like a condemned person who has been given a reprieve.

Now the other side has until Nov 5…actually, probably into December. IF they answer.

And whether they answer or not, I’m not waiving oral argument. I had to pack a whole lot of information into a relatively small space, and I know they will have questions.

So it’s really real now. The only way an opinion will not be rendered is if I dismiss my own appeal, and that sure as hell ain’t gonna happen.

I figure I will get the opinion for my birthday, May 25. And once it’s filed it will be public record.

It’s all sort of amazing.

Anyway, that’s the update.

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Yay! Good for you! I have been reading your threads on your legal case, and wish you the best of luck. Thanks for the update.

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You’ve worked very hard on this and I hope the decision goes your way. Good luck!

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Thank you both VERY much for your good wishes! I realize I will be a bit of a basket case once again when everything is done and I’m waiting on the opinion.

I have to do one last fight in the lower court this week, though: getting the receiver and the judge to acknowledge, finally, NOW that the opening brief is filed and the issues are spelled out in black and white, that the lower court no longer has jurisdiction to hear the receiver’s motion for final accounting and discharge. HELLO! His motion is for approval of the details to finalize the dissolution (appealed), and approval of all his acts and his final bill, and I have appealed his appointment and the fact that he was paid a nickel.

So… let’s see if now that there’s no question about whether I am really going to appeal or not, if she will acknowledge her lack of jurisdiction.

I’m thinking she absolutely must… but she has fooled me time and again, so I won’t be taking any bets and I’m ready to file a petition for supersedeas - I think it will be granted this time.

(The receiver’s motion is kinda sad, actually, he wrote it after he had read my appeal, which asks for restitution in the form of making him disgorge every last penny he received, seeing as how his appointment was legally void. I imagine he had a bit of heart failure reading that, and his motion specifically requests, right in the title!, that the lower court “retain jurisdcition over the receivership”. Umm… buddy? You;re an officer of the court… do you not understand that the court does not have the power to make that decision in the face of the appeal? It come across like a kid hiding behind his mother’s skirts when he has to go to school… I find it encouraging.)