Tell it to the Judge!
Without getting into the specifics of the Howard v. White case, I have been champing at the bit to discuss the Kafka-esque experience that was going through a Defamation Lawsuit in small claims court.
Quick Caveat: in the interest of finishing and posting this post, I am not double checking my dates, so apologies if there are minor discrepancies.
Before starting, I also want to point out that the filing of a defamation suit in small claims court is very unusual. Nobody at the court seems to have seen one, and nobody at the County Help Center knew anything about it, other than it is allowed.
So let’s begin our downward spiral.
The lawsuit was filed March 1 and a court date was assigned for when I was going to be out of town. Changing the date was a breeze, that was the end of simplicity however.
The state’s guidelines specifically spell out that the Small Claims Court Clerk’s role is to aid to people (plaintiff and defendant) involved in a small claims procedure. It is expected that nobody really knows what they are doing and in matters of procedure (not law), the clerk is suppose to facilitate proper action.
After changing the date, I found that I had a number of questions, what types of motions are allowed (clerk’s answer, ask someone else), how does one file a motion (ask someone else), etc.
When the deadline for filing my motion to strike was, I was told “I can’t give you legal advice.” When I politely pointed out that this was a procedural issue (one that the clerk is suppose to understand and be able to advise on), I was again directed to the Small Claims Self-Help Center (SCSHC) (aka “someone else”). This was obviously frustrating, be you grin and bear it.
At the SMSHC, I was given conflicting and incorrect advice every time I went. I’m willing to give some benefit of the doubt here because of the rarity of the issues raised in this small claims suit. The people were very helpful, but unfortunately, in matters of procedure, etc. not very knowledgeable. I ended up camping at the Alameda County Law Library and reading all about the rules and regulations of small claims court, in the end, at least 50% of the procedural advice I received was incorrect. Yikes!
But again, I’m willing to accept this, this was a rare and unfortunate circumstance.
Upon filing my motion to strike, the court clerk refused to accept any of the documentation that accompanied the court form I had filled out. Strangely, a visit to their website will provide you with all the forms and attachments filed by Mr. Howard, including the full attachment that is his rebuttal to my motion to strike, as well as Lauren Do’s filings and attachments in response to Howard’s request that she provide the names and IP addresses of some anonymous posters on her site.
What this means is that on the day of the case, the judge, Pro Tem Andrew Dosa, appeared in court without a copy of my filing. He’d never seen it. I had to hand him a 25 page motion and 109 pages of exhibits there and then. In the court’s defense (??), Dosa had only been given the rest of the documents that morning, and by his own admission had only glanced through some of them. It was a pretty unfair position for Dosa to be in as well.
The court date was strange, the hearing was nearly closed without my having given any input (I literally had to ask to speak on my position). But Pro Tem Dosa assured us that he would read everything and issue a ruling in writing. Some people are putting words in the judges mouth (check, check, Mr. Roberts, reality is paging Mr. Donald Roberts) saying that he had said he would issue a ruling the following week. Now I have to admit that I had assumed that “a quick ruling” meant in the next week or so, but the wizard’s at ADN proclaimed it would be “early next week” and are now publicly taking Dosa to task for taking so long. Honestly.
Ironically, here’s where this story jumps the tracks and becomes less a story about the confusing navigation through the court system, and heads into the abyss of non-accountable bureaucracy.
I had mistakenly thought that the court had 90 days to issue a ruling, so I sat back and waited. About 75 days after the case (late June), I called the court clerk to ask if there were any updates on when the ruling would be issued, after all it had been a long time since the hearing. “Nope” was the reply. A week later I called, pointed out that the assumed 90-day deadline was approaching, asked about indications on the ruling. “No word,” came the answer.
On the 90th Day (mid-July), again operating under the mistaken assumption that this was an actual deadline, I called. The clerk told me that Judge Dosa would be in the court on Aug. 8th and that maybe a ruling would be issued then. I mentioned the deadline, which she didn’t correct, and asked if she’d follow up with the judge (she said she would) and gave her my phone number (which she didn’t want) so she could let me know the timing of the ruling.
After two days, I called back, the phone rang for 55 minutes and no one in the clerk’s office answered. The next day, 35 minutes, no answer. I visited the office 10 minutes after hanging up. No one was on the phone, there was no concern about the lack of phone service, just a small chuckle for the staff person. The clerk was not in.
A week after the last phone conversation, I called again, the clerk had still not talked with Dosa’s office, however, this time she was surprised at how long the ruling was taking and mentioned that this was pretty unheard of. She would call Dosa, then call me back.
Five days later, she called to say that he would be in court on Aug. 8th and they would be talking about it then. (note that this is the first thing I heard two weeks earlier).
On August 9th, the clerk left a message at my house. Dosa had delivered his ruling to the clerk on June 9th, two month ago, and the clerk’s office had misplaced it. Over a month had passed since my first inquiry. Apparently, during that time, the clerk had made no serious attempt to look into the issue.
The ruling had fallen into a black hole, and I am left wondering if I hadn’t called a few times, if we’d still be wondering if Dosa’s ruling would have ever surfaced.
I’m very understanding about mistakes happening. They do, we all make them. My interaction with the small claim clerk’s office at the George E. McDonald Courthouse leads me to wonder if some administrative action, at the very least better oversight, needs to take place, things are obviously not working the way they are supposed to.
All that said, it’s good to have it all in the rear view mirror and I am thankful for the hard work that Pro Tem Dosa appears to have done on the case.
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