Is There Trouble in Doc’s Dream Land?

In a surprise move, Doc’s Dream, LLC., Patrick Robinson, Bobbi Jones, Truth Seekers, Inc. have requested the court to dismiss their attorneys of record. The court has denied their request. It is unknown to this writer if the Robinson defendants will be filing a motion to remove their legal counsel.

This is not much of a surprise as the loses have been piling up for Robinson, et al. The latest loss being the discretionary award of attorney fees for Dolores Press, et al. What is left to the imagination is whether this was an act of anger and frustration or a plan that he gave abundant thought.

In legal proceedings corporate entities must be represented by legal counsel. However, in the court filing, Robinson, et al. informed the court they will proceed pro se. Without a substitution of attorney, the judge will not allow this withdrawal. In fact, the day following Robinsons request, the judge issued his order denying the request.

The move is chaos. There doesn’t appear to be any sound logic in removing your attorney of record, without an attorney to represent the corporate entities, and having just filed a Motion for Summary Judgment. There is still much work to be done in the Summary Judgment briefing: reviewing the Plaintiff’s response and filing the Defense Reply. This doesn’t mention the possibility of the Judge calling for oral arguments. All of this reminds me of the old saying: “You know what they say about a man who represents himself in court? He has a fool for a client.” It is unlikely that Robinson, et al. are prepared for what may come of this action.

I can only speculate as to the events leading up to this moment. But I do believe there may have been some disagreement about the costs. When one reviews the case filings of the declaratory action in addition to those from these cases, it is apparent that Robinson’s legal counsel filed many unnecessary motions, fought over insignificant details, and attempted to strong arm their adversary. The only thing I can see is extensive legal bills and costs with no significant gains in the actions. The most recent example is the motion opposed by Robinson over the deposition of a witness. Dolores Press sought to continue the deposition to a date beyond the reopening of the State of California. Robinson sought to take the deposition despite the current Shelter in Place orders in California. The court ultimately slapped all counsel on the wrist for filing this motion and then sided with Dolores Press. But then Robinson proceeded to file his Motion for Summary Judgment. This begs the question, why did he waste the money on opposing a motion, when he could have proceeded without the deposition? There are many similar situations wherein Robinson did not need to go through motion practice and instead could have worked with Dolores Press, come to a compromise, and saved quite a lot of money.

Could the termination of his lawyers have been a type of strategy by Robinson to save money? It is not a good strategy, but it could be an attempt to slow the bleeding.

I have so many questions and no answers: What is Robinson’s long-term goal? Does he intend to argue the Motion for Summary Judgment himself? Did he consider that he may have to appear in California for oral arguments? Did he consider the cost of travel, food, lodging? The defense is allowed to file a response to Robinson’s motion. Robinson would be allowed to reply to the plaintiff’s response in opposition. Does Robinson know how to respond? Does he know the proper format for a reply brief?  If he loses his Motion for Summary Judgment, will he appeal? Does he know the rules involved with the appeals process? What if he loses the Motion for Summary Judgment and the case proceeds to trial? What will he do about discovery? He will undoubtedly face some motion practice during the discovery phase. Does he know how to prepare proper interrogatories? Production of Document requests? Deposition notices? What about serving subpoenas for third parties or for records? Is Robinson aware of all the costs associated with each individual filing? Is he aware of the costs associated with taking depositions? Dolores Press could legitimately tie him up in law and motion if Robinson doesn’t know the proper rules of discovery and motion practice. Is Robinson ready? Does he know the local rules of court? These are difficult to navigate when you have experience, what will he do as a novice? Then the question of trial; will he know how to prepare for trial? Trial brief, Witness lists, evidence lists, rules of law, legal conclusions, etc.? Does he know that he will need to lodge near the courthouse and be present every day of trial? Did Carlos lead Robinson down a yellow brick road to nowhere? Or is Robinson preparing the way for a legal malpractice suit? Maybe he intends to get some of the delta-force money back. As stated in a previous article, malpractice may be provable. Robinson might prevail on that suit or at least a settlement; that may be his only hope. However, that strategy doesn’t help in any way with moving through the cases against him. It appears that Robinson’s only move forward, without legal counsel, being in crushing debt to his own attorney and an award for attorney fees in the making, no sound legal theory to conclude the Motion for Summary Judgment, and no foreseeable way to proceed to trial, and virtually no hope of victory. It appears that Robinson, et al. may want to consider Dolores Press’ terms of settlement.

What may have seemed like a good strategy at the time may just be cause for concern in dream land. We’ll just have to wait and see what Robinson does next.