I think I understand what you are saying, but…..
Sure, she doesn't have to "settle" but there is only a limited window of time to advance this civil litigation, now that it's "on calendar" with the lawyers, judge and court. There are statutory time allowances for motions to be filed. In fact she should want to settle because that's why she brought the complaint in the first place, right?
If she didn't play it out, accordingly, the case would be dismissed. If the case was dismissed "without prejudice" I supposed she could re-file it again in the future, but what would be the point? And I doubt her contingency attorneys would go along with anything less than completing this case to resolution, forthwith, by settlement or trial. Her lawyers have a substantial investment in the case, and their willingness to work on contingency is predicated on getting the case adjudicated with a favorable financial sum (see my point?).
Generally speaking, filing a lawsuit of this nature asks a court to: (
a) be made whole again; and, (b) to be protected from further harm. The Court has temporarily restricted TeamCo$ from harassing Mrs. Rathbun -- and a permanent order of protection would satisfy portion (b) of Mrs. Rathbun's lawsuit.
Per Wiki....
Complaint is filed -- response to complaint is filed -- discovery process -- trial -- post-trial. <---At each step, motions can be filed.
No response to the complaint has been filed by RTC or Miscavige. Why? Because they filed a motion which told the Judge Waldrip he doesn't have the legal authority
to judge RTC and Miscavige. So, for RTC and Miscavige, at this moment, they're not even
near the discovery stage and may
never get there.
So, 'on calendar' doesn't mean 'has to progress apace' -- because some types of motions that are filed, in effect, stop the clock*. Other types of motions
must be filed, as you rightly point out, within certain time-frames -- but when the entire clock is stopped, those time-frames are (mostly) recalculated
only when the clock is turned back on.
What amount of money will restore Mrs. Rathbun to the place she was before the alleged harassment began?
That's a question that will be answered by Judge Waldrip and/or the jury via the
trial track --
or -- from the settlement agreement(s) she signs via the
settlement track.
On the trial track: she has to prove the damages she suffered and the judge/jury will (or won't) assign a monetary value to each damage proved.
On the settlement track: no proof required for/by anyone. TeamCo$ meets the dollar amount Mrs. Rathbun adjudges acceptable and everyone moves on.
Both tracks run simultaneously -- until the question is answered at trial or via settlement.
If Mrs. Rathbun settles tomorrow morning - we'll never see deposition transcripts/videos, declarations/affidavits, or any other evidentiary material yet to be obtained by Mr. Jeffrey --- and if implacably strict confidentiality clauses are a part of a tomorrow's hypothetical settlement agreement, we also won't see the evidence
already obtained.
My hope is that if Mrs. Rathbun does choose to settle this lawsuit, she does so in such a way, at such time, as benefits herself and as many other people as possible.
I think she will do exactly that if she chooses to settle -- but if she chooses instead to remain on the trial track, I will support her efforts every step of the way. She has my support whichever track she takes -- because to my mind, she suffered harm at the behest of the uppermost mgmt tier of Co$/RTC/etc. Such harmful actions were undeserved by Mrs. Rathbun and all involved should be held accountable.
JB
(*See the Garcia case - the motion to disqualify Mr. Babbitt was filed in May 2013, so
everything ground to a halt until this past week when the motion was
finally argued before the judge and he ruled Mr. Babbitt can continue as counsel to Mr. Garcia.)
