Sunday, March 11, 2012

"The court hereby orders ..."


It has been brought to my attention that malicious defamer and $85,000 (default judgment) man Patrick Ross is currently crowing about how his recent ordered appearance in a Calgary courtroom represents some sort of victory for him.

I am deliberately not going to get into the detail of the resulting order, but I can assure you I'm satisfied with what went down and I'm going to leave it at that for now. When it's safe to tell you more, I'll do just that.

P.S. To no one's surprise, no "crimes" were reported at that hearing. But I figure you'd already guessed that.

Wednesday, March 07, 2012

Patrick Ross versus the legal system.


Since I had been giving readers a regular countdown to malicious defamer Patrick Ross' required March 6 appearance in a Calgary courtroom, it now behooves me to describe (for the most part) what happened yesterday, as explained to me over the phone by my Calgary lawyer. There are a few parts still waiting on clarification, but I'll fill those in when they come in. For now, I'm going to stick to the simple facts with a minimum of editorializing.

To set the stage, you should read Patrick Ross' recent heart-tugging plea for sympathy, and decide how seriously you want to take it. You should then follow that up with my earlier, brief discussion of what happened. And now, to complete the story as best I can while still waiting for the judge's official endorsement.

First, as you can see from my earlier post, Patrick Ross simply lied in court on two fundamental points. And despite the fact that my lawyer had incontrovertible evidence in the way of affidavits and screenshots, the judge inexplicably chose to give Patrick Ross the benefit of the doubt. However, this is only a minor annoyance as he can only play that card once; it will never work again.

The consequence of the above is that Patrick Ross now has an equally inexplicably generous 45 days to fill out and return the required Statement of Debtor Form. Again, a minor annoyance since this allows Patrick Ross to drag out these proceedings even further. However, since he has already demonstrated that he is perfectly comfortable lying in court, we will be fact-checking that Statement of Debtor Form very carefully indeed. In short, the next hard deadline is 45 days from yesterday, at which time Patrick Ross must have produced a completed Statement of Debtor Form, or he will be required once again to appear in a Calgary courtroom to explain why he should not be found in contempt of court. But there's one more thing that is a bit puzzling.

As explained to me by my lawyer (and it's entirely possible I'm misinterpreting what he said), the judge decreed that Patrick Ross would have the right to file to overturn the default judgment. Which sounds like a victory for Patrick, except for the following.

He has always had that right.

Nothing has ever stopped Patrick from filing a motion to overturn the judgment. In fact, Patrick himself publicly announced last year that he was in the process of doing just that, and even posted a copy of the motion he had prepared, only to be told that he couldn't file it remotely as he was trying to do. Rather, if Patrick Ross wants to file to overturn the judgment, that must (as I have been told) be done here in Ontario where the judgment was awarded, and must be done either by Patrick personally or by an Ontario lawyer he hires to represent him.

If this is indeed the case (as I believe it is, until shown otherwise), then it's not at all clear what that Calgary judge was going on about. As long as I understand this properly, Patrick can file a motion to overturn whenever he wants, with or without the blessing of that apparently misinformed judge. And whether that motion is successful will be determined here in Ontario, mercifully without her input. I'm still waiting for clarification on what exactly the judge was saying, and when I get it, I'll let you know.

In short, Patrick Ross appeared in a Calgary courtroom yesterday and, from this point on, he has no excuses left. He has 45 days to complete and submit a Statement of Debtor Form listing all his worldly assets, and if he tries to overturn the judgment, he will either have to travel to Ontario, or (finally) hire a lawyer to represent him. At the moment, nothing about the judgment has changed, and he still owes me $85,000 plus accruing costs.

More later as it arrives.

Tuesday, March 06, 2012

Well, this is an interesting development.


I refer, of course, to this. And while I wait for my lawyer to see how I should respond, I will comment on one aspect that should be safe since it's in the public record.

I refer to this claim by Patrick Ross:


This was a judgement which, by the way, I still have yet to ever actually see. Despite the fact that I have asked for it to be shared with me. And at the point this blogpost was written, I had yet to hear so much as a murmur from the plaintiff's counsel regarding this matter. Nor did I hear so much as a murmur from the plaintiff's counsel for months after.


I now refer the reader to Google Docs here, specifically page 15 of that collection of documents, where one can read the affidavit of one Darren Campbell, process server, swearing that he did in fact personally serve one Patrick Ross on April 29, 2011 with a true copy of the original order.

And I will leave it at that for now.

P.S. The Patrick Ross currently painting himself as crushingly depressed, unproductive and emotionally incapacitated for so long is the same Patrick Ross who still managed to drag himself to his computer and maliciously defame me day after day, week after week and month after month. I don't buy this bullshit for a second. And neither should you.

UPDATE THE FIRST
: I feel at liberty to post at least the following. In court, and under oath, Patrick Ross claimed that:


  • He had never received a copy of the original November, 2010 judgment, and

  • He had never received a Statement of Debtor Form to fill out.



In order to demonstrate the falsity of those two claims (again, made under oath in a court of law), I refer the reader to the following set of legal documents, where one can read:


  • With respect to the first claim, I direct the reader to p. 15, an affidavit showing personal service of the judgment on Patrick Ross by one Darren Campbell on April 29, 2011, and

  • on that same page, proof of service of a Statement of Debtor Form by the same server on the same date.



In addition, I draw the reader's attention to pp. 12-13 of the same set of documents, showing e-mail correspondence in which Patrick Ross claims to have already mailed in the same Statement of Debtor Form he now denies ever having received.

Inexplicably, the judge chose to believe Patrick Ross rather than the affidavits supplied by my lawyer, the end result being that things will be delayed slightly but no real harm done.

Monday, March 05, 2012

Patrick Ross, and one more sleep.


Yes, it's only one more sleep until malicious defamer and $85,000 (in debt to me) man Patrick Ross is scheduled to appear in a Calgary courtroom to explain himself, and his intransigence, and his dodging and evading, and his ignoring of proper legal service over the last several months, to a judge who will probably have little patience wth Patrick Ross wanting to lecture him on the intricacies of the Canadian legal system, LOL, OMFG, ROTFL!!!! (Inside joke there -- some of you know exactly what I'm talking about.)

This is all going down 10:00 am, Tuesday, March 6, Calgary Court Centre, 601 - 5 Ave SW, so if you're bored and want to see someone possibly make a complete and utter prat of themselves, drop by. I won't be there but, unsurprisingly, I will be represented by competent and able counsel -- something Patrick Ross has apparently never considered, which is probably why he now owes me over $85,000. (Those who understand the meaning of "default judgment" will understand the level of stupidity we're talking about here.)

And for those of you with a legal bent, you can read the appropriate docs here. I would draw your attention to the phrase "SUBSTITUTIONAL SERVICE", which means that Patrick Ross will not be able to claim shocked, wide-eyed ignorance of service as he has done before. (And besides, given how Patrick has publicly bragged about how he's "looking forward" to this, it would be a wee bit difficult to walk that back now.)

So, as I said, one more sleep. Stop back later, I may have updates.

UPDATE 1: It's a bit baffling for Patrick Ross to claim, as he does in the comment linked to above, that he is going to take the opportunity of his March 6 Calgary court appearance to "report a crime." One wonders what he's referring to, and how he plans to do that.

If Patrick thinks he will be given any latitude tomorrow to wax indignant about whatever indignantizes him, he will be one sorry puppy. Tomorrow's court appearance for Patrick will not be a pleasant one. He is being called in to be lectured to. Because he has behaved very badly. And treated the Court with smug and arrogant disdain. And, mostly, because he hasn't done any of what the November 2010 judgment against him ordered him to do. In short, no one is going to be terribly interested in what Patrick Ross has to say. But wait, there's more.

If Patrick Ross thinks he's just going to repeat the same accusations against me that got him in this $85,000 hole he's in, well, that's not only probably a bad idea, but someone should explain to Patrick the concept of "statute of limitations." And if that's not enough, while I am not a lawyer, here's what seems the strangest to me.

Does Patrick really think he's going to report a "crime"? Because my judgment against Patrick is a civil judgment, not criminal. So if Patrick thinks he's going to return the favour by somehow suing me similarly, he should probably be more careful with his terminology. Unless Patrick seriously plans to go to the police station, and have me charged with an actual "crime," at which point even more people will undoubtedly have to explain to him how the law works.

Anyway, one more sleep. If you have the time tomorrow morning, feel free to pop down to the Calgary Courthouse and see what happens. Take notes. And let me know how it turns out.