November 2013 in Federal Court

The Suit filed in Federal Court, Middle District of Florida, Judge Merryday, was dismissed today for "lack of prosecution". It seems that due to a couple glitches in the Clerks office, the affidavits relating to Proof of Service of the Defendants wasn't done on the proper forms. The Clerk's office lost the Summons, which had the affidavits attached, from the date I file the suit, April 22, 2013 until July 11, 2013. They mailed them to me, First Class, on July 11,  and with a postage due of 46 cents! ( I paid a $355 fee, Cash Only, to file the suit.) I served the Defendants, without the correct pages, on June 5, 2013. So while they were all served with a summons, legally it wasn't done properly. I am attempting a Motion to Reconsider the dismissal, seeing that the Court's employees had a hand in this mess.  If that fails, which it probably will, I'll have to re-file new paperwork and pay another $400 filing fee.
I drove to the Court today, November 20th, and spoke to Dawn, who did the initial papers and who obviously forgot to mail the papers to me. She had no suggestions other than to try the Motion to Reconsider, attaching the Postage Due, 10 week late envelope.

This will certainly add a few more months to the battle!