Wrapping Up a Difficult Summer........Getting Through....

I talked to a number of lawyers along the way trying to find myself a legal coach or someone to be a spokesman at hearings at the very least. The local court rules were confusing in their vagueness and I felt the judge didn't take me seriously whenever I stood before him. There were no answers from most attorneys other than "that's why you hire an attorney" and the attorneys I spoke to wanted huge retainers I could not afford.

Over and over I said if I could afford one, I would have one. Since I couldn't afford one I needed to figure out how to get through the legal system on my own because if I quit, they would win. No way was I going to LET them win and take down my reputation when they are the ones untrustworthy.

Every lawyer I spoke with was helpful in some way. Even if there were no direct answers about those things for which I needed answers like those darn local court rules. There still were little bits of information that helped me get a clearer picture of procedures or even the pitfalls that were out there.

Each lawyer I spoke with always ended the conversation by telling me I should consider law school. At least that was encouraging. My understanding of my case had impressed them. Hopefully it would impress the judge when the trial came or so I hoped.

It did look like a trial is where we were headed. The only time I heard from their lawyer once I initiated the lawsuit (that's right, I filed this AFTER I got a threatening letter from their attorney accusing me of fraud knowing that it would be better for me to start the action that to respond to it, thanks to one of those conversations with lawyers) was in response to something I had done. Even though the judge had told her in our first hearing that she needed to keep things moving, there was no movement from her I could see. I suspected she was hoping I would miss important deadlines and they would win their counterclaim by default.

Thanks to a district court clerk I was aware that deadlines were my worst enemy. If I missed those, I was dead as far as the law was concerned. The problem I had was figuring out exactly what those deadlines meant in some instances and if I couldn't met them, how did I deal with it in a manner that kept me within those rules. There is no road map to the legal system that explains those issues because the court rules can differ in each jurisdiction. Believe me, if there were a road map, I would have found it by now. The only answer to dealing with court rules and deadlines is that statement I've grown to hate "that's why you hire an attorney."

I did finally find a lawyer who would take on my case without a huge retainer. With 30 plus years of practice in equine law he understood the complexities of my case. He knew it was going to be an expensive case and that I would be a slow pay. I'd made the paying part clear right up front. The lawyer thought about it and decided he would represent me. I think he did it because he realized it was a matter of principle to me and I guess he believed in me. That really helped my confidence but still this thing hanging over my head was eating me up.

I sent him everything I had put together in my case including all documents from the other side. It took me ten days to get it all scanned in and sent off to him. I have four 3 inch binders full of documents including legal filings. He was working on going over all of them himself before we decided our next move which it looked like would be bumping this case up from district court to superior court.

With all that material grasping the scope of this case was not an easy task. It was taking him longer than he had figured and in the meantime the clock was ticking away. I was worrying about those court deadlines I didn't quite understand, a process called discovery and where things were going from here.

Before the lawyer ever got through all of that stuff, I finally heard something from their attorney. Friday afternoon of the Labor Day weekend, I received a settlement offer. I was advised to consult with an attorney while at the same time an answer was required by the close of business Tuesday. Since they had no way of knowing I was in the process of retaining a lawyer, they had no way to know I really could sort the offer out with the aid of legal counsel and boy did I have questions. Another manipulation of the system was foiled and they didn't even know.

I did get to speak with my attorney about the settlement offer early Tuesday morning. I had already scanned in the documents and emailed them to him so when I got him on the phone all he had to do was log on and retrieve the email. We went over the specifics and my concerns and then I made my decision. I took the offer even though I was entitled to much much more. The odds of me every actually getting what I would be awarded by the court was a huge part of that decision and the toll this thing was taking on me, my family and my horses figured in as well.

The offer contained a confidentiality clause so I can't share information about it but I can say that this whole thing is over. I got my horse back last Wednesday afternoon and a stipulation dropping the lawsuit has been filed. It's over and basically I did it on my own without a lawyer. Now I can get back to my life and my horses. As I said, the trials of this summer are over and now it's time to move on.

The Homecoming

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