Today was interesting but little changed.  The low lights are, everyone is still very, very confused by all the bad connections at a singular call in.  We still haven’t figured out who “Jessica Walters” is.  She’s supposed to be an attorney, kind of the assistant of Chair Sung Yul Lee, but it turns out, I can’t find her under “lawyer search” at http://www.iardc.org nor is she in the current version of Sullivans, the main Chicago atty directory published by the Daily Law Bulletin nor can you Google her.

Continuing on with this theme, the entire room started spinning, my TV set suddenly fizzed completely out and I found my self in—-THE ARDC TWILIGHT ZONE…

ARDC Teleconference Notes May 7, 2013–the ARDC twilight zone!

Chair Lee (CL)
First he will go over ruling on pending motions,
then housekeeping matters for next pre-status hearing and order

Re: Motion to Dismiss by Respondent, Motion to Dismiss is denied, tribunal refused to give findings of fact or conclusions of law (always ask for this, a court should give well founded reasoning, if it does not–great grounds for appeal, but if you do not ask, it might get waived).

CL asked if Respondent wanted to adopt or redraft KDD’s pleadings.

Respondent asserted that KDD’s pleading had already been fully discussed except for 2 matters, one regarding witnesses (253 witness disclosures) and the alleged defects in the Answer to the Complaint.

CL asked about discovery and a motion to strike by KDD, asked if JMD would adopt this motion to strike and amend her answer.

It was decided that CL would grant 21 days for JMD to amend her answer.  CL suggests that JMD either adopt the motion to strike and amend her answer or make a fresh answer.

JMD asserted the answer was sufficient but is willing to amend pursuant to the demands of Sharon and Melissa to make them happy.

CL stated that Respondent could not confer with Sharon and Melissa regarding the drafting of the Answer (okay, why is that?)

CL then got upset and reminded JMD to give him time for CL to finish his little speeches, and JMD asserted that teleconferences are technologically limited and they inherently create VOIP and 4G time lags and everyone has to be patient because we are limited by the transmission of digital technology.  Analog to digital creates inherent lags and not in the nanosecond category, like we would all like.

JMD agreed to amend Answer, and Motion to Strike was continued 21 days.

SO went on about their Motion to Strike KDD’s Request to Admit (RFA) and JMD asserted that for better or worse, they were already answered, so the point was moot.  CL went on and on about this a bit but in the end he ruled they were not Stricken because they were already answered.  Of course, JMD could not resist chuckling, what, were they asking to strike their own RFA’s?  That would be a first.

CL stated it did not have jurisdiction to make determination re: copyright infringment claim but it took judicial notice of the copyright infringement claim.

Respondent asserted that Administrator should have received a Cease and Desist letter, but CL refused to take judicial notice of that or rule on any copyright matters other than there was a copyright infringement claim.  CL just wasn’t interested and there wasn’t much to do with that anyway.

Tribunal denied Respondent the use of email for communications with Administrator and seemed to allege that use of email was akin to ex parte communications.  Regardless, he made it sound like a crime to use email and his tone implied he really wanted either the Ill. Sup. Ct. To make it one or at least the Ill. State Legislature.  Right.  5 year olds use email on their cell phones and set it up for their parents.

CL asked Respondent to acknowledge that Tribunal could not conduct its own investigation by reading Respondent’s blog.  Okay, whatever that means and however that is important here.  I don’t get it or why they were asking that.  Clear as mud if you ask me.  I think it was akin to I can’t read your blog.  SO will do that for me and read the parts she wants, and I’ll ignore the rest.  That’s right, Judge Stuart did that (told Gloria she could not look at her videos which were on a blog and on Gloria’s disk).  But then later when Gloria was asserting her mother was competent and knew what she wanted and where to live and with whom, the Judge Stuart said “why didn’t you show me that before?”  Been there, done that.  No T shirt, just went home bewildered.

CL said that he would not send or answer any emails from JMD.  He asserted no other court allowed email communications; JMD asserted that her experience the judges in the ND of Illinois do, they email the attorneys all the time, and attys are required to answer and it moves the cases along.  CL was not interested in any facts outside his scope.

Then CL repeatedly asked JMD if she would abide by the rules and JMD had to state several times that she always had done this and she had no problems doing it.  Another waste of time.

JMD asserted that the creation of illinois.ardc@gmail.com could be very helpful to move the case along to share documents and emails, but CL would have none of that.

After long discussions about emails and such (about a half hour), everyone moved on to the fact:

1) 21 days to respond to the ARDC requests for documents would be granted;
2) JMD had 21 days to amend her answer and while she was not to consult with SO and MS on all of this, or email them, if there were continuing problems with her Answer, CL would let JMD know.  JMD responded she was only trying to move things along.  I don’t give much hope for this process, KDD did an outstanding job of reciting the facts of Sykes and the facts of First Amendment rights.  How will I do better and what exactly are SO and MS looking for and why don’t they just answer my complaint if it’s so important to them?
3) CL was going to set up a hearing schedule (great, now I know when to resurrect those MTD”s like the Phoenix rising from the ashes)
4) JMD would have 21 days to make documents asked for from the ARDC available for inspection and copying.  (Can’t I just direct them to the blog?  Do I have to download the blog again?  Also I have stacks and stacks of Gloria emails–do SO and MS really want all those.  I would file them under CS like in American Pie, but…..)

Sooooo many questions.  Soooo many bad connections and strange assertions during these hearings.  Help, I think I know what it’s like to step in a 1950’s TV with … duh dud duh…

I won’t adjust my set.  It’s the ARDC TWILIGHT ZONE!