Corporations Are in Default! Robinson’s Last Line of Defense Removed?

On July 16, 2020, the clerk of the court entered Default against the corporate entities: Doc’s Dream, LLC. and Truth Seekers, Inc.

The Default was entered due to Doc’s Dream and Truth Seekers failure to secure new legal counsel, after Robinson terminated Carlos Leyva and Linda McAleer. The Court ordered the entities to “obtain new legal representation and file Notice of Appearance of Counsel no later than July 10, 2020… The Court further warned Corporate Defendants that failure to obtain new counsel and file a Notice of Appearance would result in Corporate Defendant’s Answers being stricken and their defaults entered.” The Corporate Defendants did not file a Notice of Appearance and the Court order the Answers stricken.

This action by the Court reduces the list of defendants, who will be moving on to trial, to Robinson, Jones, Evans, and Pereida. Robinson’s corporate shields have been removed. He will now be on his own, answering for himself without being able to hide his actions behind Doc’s Dream or Truth Seekers. This means that he will be answering to the affirmative regarding uploading Dr. Gene Scott’s copyrighted works to commercial websites and the Corporate Defendants who owned the websites cannot reply. This leaves Robinson and Jones far more vulnerable than before. In essence, Defendants have found themselves in the position of having 2 Co-Defendants found liable for copyright infringement and leaving Robinson, Jones, et al. holding the bag. Robinson cannot argue that Doc’s Dream infringed, but he did not. Robinson already admitted to publicly displaying the copyrighted works of Dr. Gene Scott. Doc’s Dream and Truth Seekers will be found liable for copyright infringement in the default judgment that will be filed. The Defendants are watching their last line of defense be turned over to the whim of Plaintiff’s attorneys.

The defendants have never quite understood how bad these cases have progressed against them. But as the date rolls closer to the trial, they find themselves obligated to answer all of Plaintiff’s special interrogatories, Requests for Production of Documents, Deposition questions, Requests for Admissions, etc., or risk answering a motion to compel. They will be paying all of the costs for filing, copies, service, stenographer for deposition, cost of transcripts. They will be forced to ask questions in the deposition against experienced trial attorneys, in forms that are not objectionable. They may have to file a motion to compel or a motion for protective order on their own. They will need to know the appropriate format for the motion. Then they need to know the governing laws and the proper points and authorities for their arguments. What may be most important is knowing and following all of the Local Rules, understanding them, and operating within the bounds. Ask Plaintiff’s attorney how important this is, the Court just spoke on the matter of following the rules. It resulted in Plaintiff’s attorney being fined $1,000 or $500 in books to be donated to a public school.

This case looks more and more like a professional football team versus the high school freshmen. But it’s hard to feel bad when the Defendants are only in this position by their own doing.

This case is far from over, but victory is getting further out of reach for the Defendants. One must wonder at what point do they try to reach a settlement if Plaintiffs will even accept.