Chronicles of Twatrick: Can Patrick refile his now-dead lawsuit? He might have problems.

Recall how Patrick Ross arrogantly promised that, if he lost this recent Rule 4.33 Application, he would simply refile it:

 

 

I asked Google about this, and it seems that Patrick is going to have some problems:

 

 

Let's chat about some of the hurdles Patrick faces if he wants to start this process all over again.

First, since the limitations period for defamation in Alberta is two years, and his now-dismissed action was filed in August of 2022, that means that every single claim he made in that lawsuit is now massively out of time, and he needs to start over with claims against me only within the last two years. There's hurdle number one.

"The Exception" states that the underlying claim is still alive only if you can convince the Court that you only recently learned of the defamation. I think we can all agree that given Patrick's obsessive interest in my blog posts, and that all of his claims are listed in his 2022 Affidavit, that argument is going nowhere.

Moving on, no, you can't simply "restart" that action; it's dead, and you need to start over from scratch.

Finally, under Section 3., note the penalties Patrick would face if he tried to refile what was effectively the same action. First, "The court will almost certainly order the plaintiff to pay the defendant's legal costs for the original, dismissed lawsuit."

Patrick would then -- because this is a brand new action -- have to pay all the standard filing and service fees all over again. But the funniest part is listed under "Judicial Skepticism", where the court would be decidedly unhappy with Patrick having wasted everyone's time for well over three years, then wanting to do it all over again.

So is Patrick going to try this again? Almost certainly. And I'll be ready. 

BONUS TRACK: I added to Google's explanation that the case had already been dismissed by the Court, and it enhanced its explanation thusly:

 

 

By the way, I haven't even factored into the above:

1. That Patrick owes me over $125,000, none of which he has paid me, and
2. As an undischarged bankrupt without a trustee, it's not clear that he even has the right to file legal actions on his own. 

So I'd say that Patrick has some work to do if he wants to try this again.