Wheels of Justice Doth Spinneth Slowly...

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I have a legal case that my lawyer said, four years ago, should be pretty straightforward. Finally, 6 years after the saga began, it looks to be wrapping up. Finally.

My lawyer has been assertive in this. The other side has changed lawyers and dragged their feet. By my count we’ve dealt with five lawyers in sequence.
Back in…

Jan 2012: cruise ship Costa Concordia wrecks off of Italy — wait, there’s a theme here
Feb 2012: the legal saga begins
What’s happened since then? From some major headlines…
Jul-Aug 2012: Summer Olympics in London

Aug 2012: Curiosity arrives and lands on Mars

Oct 2012: the SF Giants win the World Series!

Nov 2012: Barack Obama re-elected President

Feb 2013: Pope Benedict XVI, the “German Shepherd”, becomes the first Pope to resign in over 600 years (Pope Francis is elected in March)

Apr 2013: the Boston Marathon terrorist bombing, 3 die, 264 injured; Margaret Thatcher dies

Jun 2013: Edward Snowden discloses CIA surveillance programs

Sep 2013: Costa Concordia is brought to a vertical position with “parbuckling”

Dec 2013: Nelson Mandela dies

Feb 2014: Sochi Winter Olympics; Ebola virus outbreak in West Africa kills 11,000+

Mar 2014: Malaysia Air flight MH370 goes missing with 239 people on board

Jul 2014: Costa Concordia is floated with sponsons and towed for scrapping

Aug 2014: Robin Williams dies, and Michael Brown in Ferguson MO (St. Louis shooting)

Oct 2014: the SF Giants win the World Series!

Jan 2015: 12 die in the Charlie Hebdo shootings in Paris

Jul 2015: NASA’s New Horizons probe does a flyby of Pluto

Sep 2015: Volkswagen accused of cheating on diesel emissions

Mar 2016: Nancy Reagan dies; Barack Obama visits Cuba, the first sitting President since Calvin Coolidge in 1928

Jun 2016: the Orlando nightclub mass shooting (49 die, 58 injured) is the deadliest lone-gunman USA shooting (VA Tech in Apr 2007)

Aug 2016: Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro

Nov 2016: the Cubs win the World Series! 108-year drought ends; Donald Trump elected; Janet Reno dies

Dec 2016: John Glenn dies, he’s the last of the original Mercury 7; Carrie Fischer and Debbie Reynolds die

Jun 2017: on my wife’s and my Europe vacation, our cruise ship sails past Isola del Giglio, the island where Costa Concordia wrecked

Jul 2017: Costa Concordia dismantling is completed, in Genoa Italy

Aug 2017: a total solar eclipse crosses the USA; Hurricane Harvey floods Houston

Sep 2017: Hurricanes Irma and Maria devastate the Caribbean and US Gulf states

Oct 2017: the Las Vegas outdoor concert mass shooting (58 die, 546 injured) is the deadliest lone-gunman USA shooting (Orlando in Jun 2016)

Nov 2017: ʻOumuamua is determined to be the first known interstellar object to pass through our Solar System
Besides these, nothing much has happened. :wink: It’s amazing how slowly the wheels of justice can turn. :smack:

2

I’m not threadshitting or anything, but I sort of expected at least some clue regarding what type of legal action is involved. I mean, if you’ve been trying to declare someone dead after they disappeared, that’s one thing. If you are trying to buy a piece of property, that’s another. Just saying…

3

And if you’re trying to get a piece of property declared legally dead, that is a long process indeed.

Especially if that piece of property is a bleak house.

4

I’m guessing there’s past threads about the OP’s legal quagmire that he assumes everybody already knows about, which is never the case, and somehow this ship is involved.

5

I’d blame Robert Vaughn.

6

I just assumed he wasn’t allowed to talk about the case until it’s actually over. But had something he felt he must share this anyways.

7

Various states have defined the constitutional guarantee of a “speedy trial” variously. Without looking it up, based on memory, I believe it is 9 months in Illinois and 12 months in Florida.

8

I empathize.

Mom was injured in a car crash. Ambulance ride. Surgery. The works. Crash was 100% the other driver’s fault.

Other driver’s insurance, an agricultural political subdivision, was decent in dealing with the property damage part of the claim. But more than a year after the crash they have not paid even the first dollar of the medical claim. Not even the initial ambulance.

And so mom felt she had to get a lawyer. Which has only slowed things down even more. If the insurer had just paid the medical bills and offered something nominal for pain and suffering this never would have entered the legal realm.

9

I assume Bullitt is referring to a civil trial, as opposed to a criminal trial.

10

Well, the point about the case was that it was supposed to be pretty straightforward. I thought so, and my lawyer did too. I wasn’t assuming anyone read any prior thread about it. And there is none.

I can talk about the case. There was going to be a nondisclosure clause in the agreement, but that’s being stricken and should not be in the final agreement for review and acceptance. But it’s a lot of details that aren’t important. The main thing is that this should have taken maybe six months, max, and it’ll be six years.

Iggy, your mom’s situation sucks. The legal system benefits from delays — the more delays there are, the more money the lawyers make. The lawyers are supposed to be our advocate but they drag things out and make more money.

I will say that my lawyer has not done this. He’s been timely, prompt and assertive. The other side has dragged their feet, and my legal fees are approaching $100K. Great.

And yes, doorhinge, it’s a civil case. It will (almost certainly) never go to trial. After much back-and-forth with reviewing and revising the settlement agreement, we are pretty close to finalizing it. Hopefully before 2018.

11

Janet Reno died?

12

IIRC Johnny Cash shot her.

13

Nah. Beat her with a bike chain.

14

And his childhood home in Arkansas might become a National Historic Site.

http://www.rollingstone.com/country/news/johnny-cashs-boyhood-home-up-for-register-of-historic-places-w512775

15

Well it is finally resolved. Things are back to normal.

Sorry, I didn’t intend to tease about what the legal action was about. My initial point was that, for seemingly straightforward legal issues it can still take years to resolve. But now it’s all over, everything is resolved and there’s no NDA.

What happened was that my mortgage company made an error in my favor and said my mortgage has a $0 balance — they kept returning my mortgage payments. It was an error that would have given me over $600,000 (San Francisco area housing costs — crazy for a small, humble home on a postage stamp of property). But they were wrong and I pursued to resolve it. It took over six years to straighten it out. They even reconveyed title to me. All that time I’m not making any mortgage payments. My lawyer, the 4th I consulted with and worked with the longest, thought it would be straightforward and easy. But it still took over six years.

So now my mortgage is restored, the title was un-reconveyed back, and I’m back to making normal payments. For Star Trek: TOS fans, it’s the Guardian of Forever saying, “Time has resumed its shape. All is as it was before.“

It was very bizarre. Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride!

16

Now let me get this straight; you suddenly found yourself without having to pay your mortgage, but being the honest and upright citizen you are, you told them they were wrong and it took them SIX YEARS to agree to take your money again?

My head asplode.

17

Flabbergasting, right? I kept trying to give them money, and they kept saying no. For a little over six years!

18

Oh, I believe that he pursued this. All he needs is 20 years from now to have the mortgage company demand immediate full payment plus 20 years worth of interest, or they take possession of the house. What I don’t get is why he isn’t trying to get the mortgage company to reimburse he legal fees.

I know someone who was getting free cable through no fault of his own (the cable company never shut it off after previous tenant cancelled service), and when the cable company found out, back-billed him for 2 years of service, plus interest. He refused to pay, and they turned him over to a credit agency, and shut off his cable. [Long story] he settled for some fraction, but it took his credit a while to recover, and when he wanted to buy a car, paid a high rate of interest. He may have had other dings to his credit, but he bitched about the cable company.

19

You assume incorrectly! I did, and they did.

20

And the legal fees were hefty.