The Lawyer Who Quit - NOT - & More Court Hearing Chaos Part II

  After another phone call to the court clerk and further discussions with a colleague, the female court employee who had already spent close to an hour with me trying to help sort out this mess continued that the court clerk said the court had not received any notice from my former attorney that he had resigned from my case. A lawyer quitting a case is required by the court to file a pleading stating the change and any relevant details. More than a month after emailing me that he was quitting, he had not submitted the requisite letter to the court notifying them of his departure.

  The court clerk also told the staffer helping me that it would be very difficult to change the hearing date again, especially back to the original March 31 date. It would involve getting at least the judge, the defendants' lawyer, the court interpreter, and me to all be agreeable to, and available on, a new date before April 7. Adding to the importance of my being at the next court hearing, the court clerk pointed out that the judge said it would definitely be the final hearing for this "first instance" phase of court. The judge will close the case and announce her decision - a decision almost certainly to be the same as the previous judge who announced back in September 2010 that either I withdraw my lawsuit or he would rule in favor of the defendants.

  The court staffer really did her best trying to help me - a lone bright spot and semblance of a human being among an army of indifferent, disinterested, slavish, inept, and prejudiced robo-civil servants. The last thing this exceptional standout did on this day (last Friday) was to call my former attorney's office to find out straight from him what was his involvement in my case, but he wasn't in the office and he also didn't answer his cell phone. Before submitting my own pleading for another change in the court hearing date, we needed to find out what happened about his resignation and whether or not he really intended to continue representing me. I finally got the answers later that evening after emailing him and getting his reply shortly after.

The Lawyer Who Quit - NOT - & More Court Hearing Chaos

  As if there hasn't already been enough bizarre nonsense & confusion in this unnecessarily drawn-out saga, last Friday added another chapter to this Twilight Zone script.

  In the afternoon I got a notice from the Taipei District Court. As usual it was in Chinese and from what little I could make out appeared to be a change in the court hearing date. I took it to the court building to ask the staff to explain to me in English what it said. They confirmed my suspicions and told me the next hearing had been changed from March 31 to April 21...and the real killer was that the change had been requested by of all people....my former attorney who had unceremoniously quit a month ago!

  This is when things got really confused. I had already told the court staff a few weeks ago that my attorney had quit and I had no new lawyer. I reminded the clerk of this and asked her again if she was sure the change was requested by the departed attorney.  She remembered I told her the lawyer had quit and she was equally confused about the lawyer's actions. 

  After a phone call and some discussion with other staff, she explained further that the notice of the March 31 hearing had been sent to my former attorney. He replied to the court in writing that he would be out of Taiwan on March 31 and he asked the judge to reschedule the hearing for a date in April. All the while this was going on, neither the lawyer nor the Legal Aid Foundation bothered to inform me that the lawyer was still on my case and he had requested a change in the hearing date! Another bizarre twist in their accusations that I "disrespected my lawyers" when, in fact, this was just another example of how the lawyers (and the LAF) have treated me with callousness, disregard and disrespect, not I treating them this way.

  I made it clear to the court clerk that I could not attend a hearing on April 21 and that I didn't appreciate a change in the original March 31 date being made by a lawyer who had quit and didn't even inform me of any change in his status or that he had requested a change in the hearing date. Nobody bothered to check with me to see if I would be available on a different date!

To be continued... 

Here's the latest court hearing notice:

5 Months Later...Finally Another Court Hearing!

  It's been a very busy 12 days since my last post...lots of things to do as I prepare for the future, including the next phase of this battle against the forces of evil oppressing me (and suppressing the truth and justice) for going on 4 years now. I am evolving in some necessary ways and they will become more evident in the coming weeks and months.

  For now, some long overdue news came last week - the next hearing in my civil lawsuit has been set for March 31. This time it's supposed to be a female judge and, with my previous attorney abandoning me several weeks ago, I'll be on my own this time...no lawyer pretending to be representing me. I guess the judge and the nursing university are in for a bit of a surprise!

  Here's what the notice from the Taipei District Court looks like:

LAF = Legal Aid Farce

  After the exit of another lawyer, as expected the Legal Aid Foundation requested I meet with some staff to discuss why he and the previous attorney quit my case. I expected their attitude to be defensive about the lawyers and biased toward me...and I wasn't disappointed. 

  Despite my very clear and documented examples of how one of the earlier lawyers made a serious error by calling a witness for the nursing university who, of course, perjured in court and said she saw me touch the accuser on her waist, and how the most recent attorney attempted to crash my case by insisting that I agree with the judge's proposal I "settle" with the nursing university by dropping the lawsuit or else he would rule against me, the LAF attorney who I spoke was clearly there to protect the interests of her fellow attorneys and not to protect the interests of me, the client.

  So, it was no surprise (but still disappointing) when I got an email from the LAF on Thursday, March 11, telling me that they were dropping my legal aid, despite the fact I still meet all the criteria for legal aid. Apparently, there's an unwritten condition that recipients of legal aid from the legal foundation must not ask their attorneys too many questions or question anything their attorneys do/don't do - even if the attorney damages their case through negligence, ineptitude or other ways. Like judges in Taiwan, attorneys are all-knowing, omnipotent, infallible and beyond reproach.

  Here's the email and you can see the absolutely flimsy and juvenile reason they gave for not helping me anymore as well as their rejection of my request for reimbursement of the additional court costs the Taipei District Court in January suddenly insisted I must pay or else my lawsuit would be dropped. 

Dear Mr. :

Because you doubt lawyer's attitude, and considered the lawyer wasn't positive in the case. The Review Committee thought you didn't respect to the lawyer. They thought we should terminate legal aid.

And you have paid the court costs, and the judge repealed the  litigation in forma pauperis ,so the Review Committee thought we won't pay the legal costs of litigation.

If you can not accept these decisions made by the Review Committee may file a petition for appeal with reasons to the Appeal Committee of the Foundation within 30 days after receiving the written decision from the Review Committee.

I will send you the written decision in these days.

Regards

Miss Tung