I want to share a Tale that occurred about a year ago. No, this isn’t a political commentary on whether or not someone believes COVID-19 exists, but more a real example of the differences in our country.
A solid agency, whom I shall refer to as “Perry White”, has sent me cases for at least a decade, and continued to do so during the pandemic. Perry hails from Metropolis, where it’s obvious that the Courts operate far differently than here in Gotham City. He sent us a commercial claim against a restaurant, in the Fall of 2019, for a breach that occurred in 2018. The debtor never responded. We filed suit. And the debtor’s time to interpose an Answer fell just about March 17, 2020.
Now, as we all know, the Crisis on Infinite Earths hit in March 2020. Worse than the Blip caused by Thanos’s snap. Yet, in mid-June, Perry sent me an email. He did ask how my loved ones and staff were faring during these “unprecedented times”, (and at that time, I had only heard that phrase a few dozen times). But then he asked when the judgment was entered. “When”, not “if”.
I advised him that the Courts in Gotham had been closed since March 19, and that this particular Court was still not fully open, much less accepting defaults.
Seconds after I hit send, before I could even transfer the “Sent” email into my “Client Correspondence” mailbox, I saw the red light on my Bat-phone. It was Perry.
“Great Caesar’s Ghost! Why isn’t the Judgment entered yet?” He exclaimed.
“The Courts are still closed, and we haven’t yet submitted a default.”
“Mr. Wan, I am appalled that you have not yet taken the default.”
I attempted to explain that we were not pursuing defaults, especially against businesses that are currently closed, like restaurants. I told him that he should advance his diary 60 days.
He was angry, and told me “There’s no way that the Courts are still closed!” and then proceeded to tell me to put all my cases on hold, so he can further investigate, and grumbled at me as he hung up the phone.
About an hour later, he emailed me back, and told me that I could lift the hold, and he said he would follow up in two weeks. I guess my word wasn’t enough, and he had to check with Superman to corroborate my story.
Eventually, we did submit our judgment. But the restaurant was permanently closed.
About a month ago, I got an email from Perry on a different case, and his email as “Are the Courts in Gotham still miserably backlogged?” Optimistically, I told him that I am proud to report that as of April 2021, we are getting back judgments that were submitted in January…. 2020.”
