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Question

I am a Pro se Litigant in the state of Georgia and requested an appeal of a judge's order. The defendants filed a motion to dismiss my request and the judge granted their motion to dismiss. I must now appeal the Judge's order to dismiss. Do I file a petition for writ of mandamus or is there another approach?

Submitted: 250 days and 23 hours ago.
Category: Legal
Value: $30
Status: CLOSED
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Posted by socrateaser 250 days and 22 hours ago.

Answer

Unless I misunderstand your question, you appear to want to appeal an interlocutory order (order pending final judgment). If so, the rules are found here: http://www.gaappeals.us/rules2/rules.php?name=APPLICATION%20FOR%20INTERLOCUTORY%20APPEAL.

 

If I don't understand correctly, feel free to clarify.

 

Terms and Conditions: By your continuing in this conversation with me, or by your clicking “Accept”, you are expressly agreeing to all of the following: (1) our communication is for entertainment purposes only; (2) you are not consulting me in my professional capacity as an attorney; (3) you do not seek to establish an attorney-client relationship with me, nor do I with you; (4) you will not rely on anything I say and you will obtain appropriate legal counsel via a traditional/office consultation with an attorney licensed to practice in the jurisdiction where your legal issue arises (and you may not use our communication to avoid taxpayer penalties imposed by the U.S. Dept. of Treasury); (5) by communicating with me in this public forum you are irrevocably waiving any right to privacy, confidentiality and attorney-client privilege concerning the matters discussed. You further separately declare that any payment made by you is not consideration for this contract, nor offered for any services rendered by me on your behalf, but rather is made in genuine admiration and respect for my desire to help others. If you do not agree with these terms and conditions, then you must advise me immediately.

250 days and 22 hours ago.

Reply

Please allow me to explain further. I am the Plaintiff and won summary judgement. The judge ordered mediation and I accepted the $$ offered; however, I released only the defendants and not their lawyers because they had engaged in unlawful behavior. The defendants signed the mediation agreement; however, the judge ordered me to release the lawyers as well. My appeal is to overturn, as a matter of law, the judge's order that I agree to release the unlawful attorneys. Does this help??

250 days and 22 hours ago.

Reply

I am the Plaintiff and won summary judgement. Subsequently, the judge ordered mediation and I agreed to a $$ amount and agreed to release the 'defendants' only and not other plaintiffs named in the legal filings. Because the lawyers for the defendants engaged in what I consider to be unlawful behavior, I did not release them. The judge ordered me to sign the mediated agreement as prepared by the defendants, an agreement that I was not allowed to alter, which includes a release of the lawyers. I appealed. The defendants' lawyers motioned to dismiss my appeal and the judge allowed the appeal to be dismissed. I now wish to appeal the judge's order to dismiss. Do I file a petition for writ of mandamus or another type of document?

Hopefully, this helps...

Posted by socrateaser 250 days and 21 hours ago.

Answer

Wow...I must admit this is a weird one.

 

An attorney is an agent for his/her principal. If you have released the principal, then you have released the agent, unless there is an injury different in kind from the injury caused by the principal.

 

The judge can't order you to release the attorneys, because to do so would violate your right to due process, i.e., to have your injury addressed by a court.

 

It's nutty, frankly. A judge simply has no authority to order you to settle, because by definition, a settlement is voluntary, and the court is making the settlement involuntarily, i.e., rendering a judgment by another name.

 

It seems to me that the interlocutory appeal that I pointed you to, is appropriate, because you cannot obtain a final judgment unless you follow the judge's order, but the judge's order finally disposes of a material issue of the case that cannot be appealed after the fact.

 

Terms and Conditions: By your continuing in this conversation with me, or by your clicking “Accept”, you are expressly agreeing to all of the following: (1) our communication is for entertainment purposes only; (2) you are not consulting me in my professional capacity as an attorney; (3) you do not seek to establish an attorney-client relationship with me, nor do I with you; (4) you will not rely on anything I say and you will obtain appropriate legal counsel via a traditional/office consultation with an attorney licensed to practice in the jurisdiction where your legal issue arises (and you may not use our communication to avoid taxpayer penalties imposed by the U.S. Dept. of Treasury); (5) by communicating with me in this public forum you are irrevocably waiving any right to privacy, confidentiality and attorney-client privilege concerning the matters discussed. You further separately declare that any payment made by you is not consideration for this contract, nor offered for any services rendered by me on your behalf, but rather is made in genuine admiration and respect for my desire to help others. If you do not agree with these terms and conditions, then you must advise me immediately.

250 days and 21 hours ago.

Reply

The case is complex and I am certain that 'games' are being played because I am not an attorney and only know what I read as the matter progresses. One last point of clarification regarding you web link on interlocutory appeals, does the trial judge have the duty to deny the appeal from moving forward?

Posted by socrateaser 250 days and 20 hours ago.

Answer

Hmmm...I see what you mean. The trial judge would have to issue a "certificate of immediate review" in order for you to file an interlocutory appeal -- which clearly won't happen, because the judge won't want to cooperate.

 

You could potentially get the judge's attention by moving for a certificate and stating the grounds, i.e., ordering you to release the attorneys has the effect of creating an adversarial final judgment on the merits, and then offer the alternative of setting aside the order. Maybe that request would cause the judge to reconsider the prior order.

 

If not, then all you can do is refuse to sign the order, at which point the judge will either refuse to enter the mediation agreement, and set the matter for trial, or throw you in jail for civil contempt until you agree to sign (which would lead you to have someone get a writ of habeas corpus for you, and probably bring the ACLU or the U.S. Dept. of Justice into the case).

 

You could also move to have the judge disqualify/recuse him/herself for prejudice.

 

But, it seems to me that the logical outcome will be that the case will be tried, rather than agreed to, and then in the end, you could appeal the entire case on grounds that the final order did not represent the agreemnt of the parties, and that the trial was improperly ordered, because the parties had already entered a settlement.

 

I'm just musing here, but I don't see any way for you to appeal the case, unless the judge allows the certificate.

 

Terms and Conditions: By your continuing in this conversation with me, or by your clicking “Accept”, you are expressly agreeing to all of the following: (1) our communication is for entertainment purposes only; (2) you are not consulting me in my professional capacity as an attorney; (3) you do not seek to establish an attorney-client relationship with me, nor do I with you; (4) you will not rely on anything I say and you will obtain appropriate legal counsel via a traditional/office consultation with an attorney licensed to practice in the jurisdiction where your legal issue arises (and you may not use our communication to avoid taxpayer penalties imposed by the U.S. Dept. of Treasury); (5) by communicating with me in this public forum you are irrevocably waiving any right to privacy, confidentiality and attorney-client privilege concerning the matters discussed. You further separately declare that any payment made by you is not consideration for this contract, nor offered for any services rendered by me on your behalf, but rather is made in genuine admiration and respect for my desire to help others. If you do not agree with these terms and conditions, then you must advise me immediately.

250 days and 20 hours ago.

Reply

I must admit, I laughed out loud after reading your response. It appears that I am caught in a system that protects its own, namely, judges (lawyers) protecting lawyers. Therefore, to avoid being thrown in jail, which clearly is not a preferred outcome, I will, respectfully, write a document to the court, stating the documented 'missteps' and beg the court to rescind its order and allow my appeal to proceed.

Thanks for your sage advice and wisdom, which was flavored with a touch of humor!!

Accepted Answer

You're welome and good luck!

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Expert: socrateaser
Pos. Feedback: 98.8 %
Accepts: 
Answered: 3/17/2009

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