Richard Dawkins brings court case

[geni]

And it's still ongoing
http://www.rationalskepticism.org/news-politics/dawkins-sues-josh-timonen-t14455-2420.html

Anyone know the US legal system well enough to give us a rough time to completetion? Next november say?

 

[LashL]

It looks like there are motions scheduled to be heard on May 6. Depending on the outcome of those, presumably the defendants will then file their answer to the complaint and the matter will proceed from there.

It appears that the matter was commenced in the Superior Court of Los Angeles County, was later transferred to the U.S. District Court of California, then eventually transferred back to the lower court again, where the plaintiffs have filed a second amended complaint, to which the defendants have responded with a motion to strike certain parts of the second amended complaint and a motion for sanctions. Those appear to be the motions scheduled for May 6.

So, the short answer to the question is: probably not any time soon.

 

[Dunstan]

And it's still ongoing
http://www.rationalskepticism.org/news-politics/dawkins-sues-josh-timonen-t14455-2420.html

Anyone know the US legal system well enough to give us a rough time to completetion? Next november say?

It's really hard to say.

It looks like they're still hashing out the pleadings, with the hearing on the latest demurrer (objection to the legal sufficiency of the complaint) and case management conference to be held on May 6, 2011.

At that point the court might or might not set a trial date. Some judges like to wait until the pleadings are all set before setting a trial date, others don't. If there is a trial set, I can't imagine it would be any earlier than late 2011, and more likely some time in 2012 -- it depends on the state of the court's docket, how much discovery the parties say they'll need, whether any of the discovery is going to have to take place overseas, etc. And of course trial dates get continued sometimes.

On top of that, there's nothing magical about the trial date as the end point. Most cases settle. (I expect the parties will agree to go to mediation, and the judge will set a deadline to complete the mediation process. Nobody should read anything into that if it happens, because that's pretty standard practice in California -- it's not a signal that settlement is any more or less likely in a particular case.) Sometimes cases get decided before trial on motions for summary judgment. And judgments (whether after trial or otherwise) get appealed.

So basically: any time between a couple of months from now and a couple of years from now. Your guess of next November is as good as any.

 

[Rrose Selavy]

Dawkins drops case:

“We’d been litigating for nine months and estimated that it probably would cost at least another $100,000,” Dawkins’s lawyer, Blaine Greenberg, tells Mandrake. “I recommended not to continue, entirely on a cost-benefit analysis.”
Timonen, a web designer, claims that Dawkins dropped the case because of a lack of evidence.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/rel...is-court-action-against-charity-employee.html

http://joshtimonen.com/post/7865368424/dawkins-and-foundation-request-dismissal-of-case

 

[BenBurch]

A shame that he got away with it.

 

[pipelineaudio]

Was there ever a release of the backstory of all this? I figured we'd have the details by now