As I continue to peruse the law related to Alberta's "Drop Dead" Rule 4.33 for my upcoming August 20 hearing, I asked Google whether the Plaintiff (in this case, undischarged bankrupt Patrick Ross) has the right to simply drop the lawsuit that is the target of my Application, and what (if any) consequences there would be.
Here's the opinion of Google AI:
This is revealing as it shows that, given that the Rule 4.33 hearing for this matter is already scheduled for August 20, Patrick can't simply say, "Ah, never mind the whole thing," at least not without the permission of myself or the Court, which means that if Patrick does try to withdraw his meritless lawsuit before the hearing, I have the right to say, "Uh, no, we're doing this, so make sure your August 20 is open, dude."
Even better, note the "Abuse of Process / Terms" section, which makes it clear that upon discontinuance, I can still apply for costs and the court could rule that Patrick has no right to turn around and simply refile the same stupid lawsuit (which, in fact, he has already promised to do).
In short, if Patrick thinks that dropping this lawsuit will make his problems go away, well, he's in for an unpleasant surprise. He really should get himself a lawyer.
2 comments:
I'm familiar with this bit of law. If you're already at the point where a hearing or trial is scheduled and you try to drop your own lawsuit, the Court is going to be really pissed that you dragged it out that long, costing everyone money, and it might order the hearing or trial to proceed as scheduled with subsequent additional costs levied against you. So if you're likely to get solicitor-client costs already (and it sounds like you are), then forcing this to go to a hearing means you'll get even more costs.
In cases where a Defendant refuses to agree to dropping the lawsuit, a Plaintiff's lawyer would be smart to advise his client to offer to pay the costs up to that point in exchange for agreeing to drop the suit. That's usually the cheapest option for the Plaintiff; cut your losses and move on.
Anon @ 8:45 AM: I already have correspondence from Patrick wherein he assures me that he intends to contest this Application and that he will attend the August 20 hearing.
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