Ann Holden's Page

The TRIAL That Didn't Happen

August 19, 2010

Trial was to begin at 8:30 AM. Glenn and I arrived at 8:00 AM. We found the court room, and waited for the bailiff.

8:50 AM Bailiff arrived, we checked in with her, and took our seats in the court room.

9:00 AM The bailiff came out of her office, and told us that there would be no trial, as Motion For Summary Judgment was ordered last week, by a visiting judge. She also stated that we should have received something in the mail from the courts on this order. She then told us to go down to the clerk's office to see what was filed.

9:15 AM The clerk's office pulled our case up on his computer, but did not see anything filed. We told the clerk that we had been checking the court docket several times a day, and that we had not received anything in the mail from the court. We were told to go back upstairs to the bailiff and find out where the paperwork is.

9:30 AM We went back to the bailiffs office, and she met us at the door with the judge's order for Summary Judgment, (signed today by Judge Annalisa Williams). The bailiff told us that this order had been sitting on the judge's desk since last week, and that there were two new law clerks hired. This was the excuse for what had happened.

9:40 AM The clerk gave us a copy of the judge's order. We asked the clerk for the name of the visiting judge. The clerk acted like she was an idiot, or perhaps she was not acting. She told us that she just started working at the court house, and she did not know the name of the visiting judge.

10:00 AM Glenn and I left the court house. As we were driving home, we discussed what had happened in court. The Plaintiff did not show up for the trial. How did he know that his Motion For Summary Judgment had been granted, since nothing was filed until this morning?

Why is it, that the name of the visiting judge is nowhere to be found, and how did the Plaintiff know about this order, when the order was just filed today?