Laura's Links is taking a brief hiatus today in order that Laura may tend an ill family member. Our prayers are with Laura and her family for a speedy recovery.
It's on!
Just as most of the team was en route to Barcelona for The Mark Steyn Cruise, we received numerous notifications that a number of court filings - including appeals to the Court of Appeals of the District of Columbia - were underway in the never-ending lawfare initiated by Michael E. Mann against Mark and his co-defendants.
In our last update, we mentioned that DC Superior Court Judge Alfred S. Irving, Jr. denied Mann's attempt to stall payment of the half-million dollars he has been ordered to pay National Review (NR).
Delaying payment of an Anti-SLAPP Act fee award would prolong the award recipient's loss of funds to meritless litigation and erode the compensatory value of the award. (Cf. Fed. Prescription Serv., 636 F.2d at 760)
True to form (he still hasn't paid Tim Ball's widow what he owes in his other lawfare case) - Mann hasn't paid up. And, in a recent filing with the DC Court of Appeals, Mann says he will be asking them for "relief" from Irving's order.
In addition, Mann and two of his lawyers John Williams and Peter Fontaine have engaged another attorney to represent them in the sanctions they received for lying to the jury. According to Mann's 10th, 12th, 36th lawyer:
...the Court engaged in its own analysis of the evidence well beyond what the parties argued in the motions for sanctions, and in the process reached erroneous conclusions that are inconsistent with evidence the Court might not have possessed or appreciated.
The Court rejected simple and benign explanations of the Attorneys' conduct, which are corroborated by overwhelming evidence, and instead concluded that two longtime members of the bar deliberately made false statements to the Court and introduced false evidence...
Good luck with that...
As is often the case with all these high-priced attorneys, the new guy hadn't bothered with the basics so filed his lengthy motion in excess of the page limit set by the court and chambers. So, yesterday, he had to file another motion seeking to exceed the page limit on the motion that was already filed in excess of the page limit...
The advantage of non-lawyers representing themselves is that they take the time to read the rules: Which is why when Mark wanted to file a particularly large motion, he filed the motion within the limit and offered an extended version separately in the event the Judge wanted to entertain a particularly specious argument from Mann.
Why bother paying some guy $800/ an hour or whatever if they can't even manage to have their paralegal scan the rules of the judge you are about to beg to reverse a decision that is completely within his gift?
Oh, and apparently the courthouse wasn't even open yesterday to receive the delinquent filing... Happy Belated DC Emancipation Day everyone!!
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