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.