I slammed that Lucite cover down, closing off the button as fast as I could.
This morning was my Zoom mediation meeting regarding the small claims suit. I presented my weak argument regarding the balance owed, plaintiff's lawyer shot it down but threw me out an offer anyway: He would go ahead and chop off a couple grand from the total if I paid in four lump-sum payments. Then I pulled out my documents and challenged the plaintiff's ownership of the debt. Threw the attorney off guard since this was about the amount owed, not whether he had the right to collect on it. Mediator refocused back to arbitrating the balance, which I knew he would, and then I went into my spiel of I could "promise" as low as $50 a month (to which the plaintiff's lawyer said he'd consider) but I admitted it would soon be a broken promise after a few months due to the fact I was, in other ways of saying it, essentially judgement proof. Dude knew where I was going and the mediator was trying to sell me on "the deal," saying otherwise the debt would be owed for up to 20 years. Ohh, I'm so scared...
Does this even work? Either way, it would be owed as long as it took for the balance, with accruing interest, to take to whittle down to zero. And ever so slowly, at the "deal" rate of $50 a month. Maybe an imbecile wouldn't be able to see it would take over THIRTEEN YEARS to pay the debt off, even with no interest rate.
So it's back to the courtroom with us. Hazzah! The war rages on. More importantly, time marches on. Time wasted as the slow-as-molasses system takes to schedule a trial date, perhaps well into an expected (near?) future of a maskless courtroom so they can haul my fat ass downtown.
It's all good. Time delayed until the inevitable summary judgment ('cause that's likely where it'll end up going) is time on my side. Then once I lose the trial, maybe I can revisit that $50 a month deal. But it won't be for 13 years buddy boy. That ol' bankruptcy hammer will be waiting to drop signifying the REAL NO DEAL!