The Sturgis North Lawsuit - the gift that just keeps on giving

Well folks, my lawyer has finally gotten word on what is happening with the Sturgis North Lawsuit and it's NOT PRETTY.

As many of you know, Ray Sasseville and Joan Hanson of Sturgis North, now Sturgis Canada are suing me for slander and defamation.

The suit originally had 7 defendants but Ray and Joan offered to settle with 6 of the defendants with no real caveat against anyone.  They offered to settle with me as well, but their offer was preposterous and I have been waiting for my counter offer to go to them.

My attorney wanted to ensure that all of the other lawsuits had in fact gone through the courts and were well and truly settled before he filed my counter.

And then the lawyer for Ray and Joan and Sturgis North, Gerhard Pyper was suspended by the BC Law Society.

Ah yes, this lawsuit is a gift that just keeps on giving...

The suspension of the lawyer representing Sasseville and Hansen complicates everything ten fold.

According to the BC Law Society, they do not have a lawyer who is prepared to take on Mr. Pyper's cases and so Ray and Joan will be treated as self representing, as Ray had filed a motion to self represent even though Mr. Pyper was still handling their correspondence.

So what does this mean for me?

Well, we now have to deal with two individuals instead of one lawyer.

My counter offer should be in their hands shortly and once it is I will share with you the document that my lawyer sends out so that you can read for yourself whether there is any true substance to their claims against me or not.

If they do not accept my counter offer to settle, then I am looking at $40-50 thousand dollars to see this thing through.

The immediate need is to raise another $10,000.

That is to cover this new letter to go out, and the time my attorney is going to have to take out of his office in Salmon Arm to petition the courts in Surrey for a change of venue and a bond for costs.

According to my attorney, the Surrey court is a mess, it takes 3 months for orders to be filed - like the 6 we are waiting on from back in May!

It can also take, even with an appointment, up to three days for a lawyer to get in front of a judge to prove why a change of venue makes sense.

That's with an appointment - a date and time that he is supposed to meet with the judge!  We could get lucky and the appointment could happen on time, but apparently, there are many times where lawyers have had to stay over one and two extra days because a hearing before them took longer than scheduled.

My lawyer costs approx. $7,000 for every day out of his office!

My attorney does not hold out much hope for a resolution to this irritating case any time soon....

So we will be holding an on line auction for some amazing SOA art from an autistic artist named Mark Mullen.  Mark is one talented young man!

We helped him auction off the originals of the original cast members of SOA - all were signed by the actors except for Piney and now he has donated a set to me to help with my defense fund!

25 certified copies of this set were made and we will be auctioning off the 25th set!  All come with certificates of Authenticity!

I will let you know the particulars in the next few days!

I hope you have a fabulous day and remember to ride like everyone around you is blind and cannot see you!

Belt Drive Betty
Editor & Rider









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