CASE BC661819 OUR DREADED FIRST DAY IN COURT

It was hard to sleep Monday night. I hadn't found an attorney who would take the case on contingency yet and I was afraid we were going to lose our home. We had an 8:30 am hearing at Superior Court in downtown LA.

We got up at 5 am and arrived early. Court is near Chinatown and I promised my son he could have Chinese food after we finished our work. James liked that idea and it made him happy to think about it. He talked about having "Donald Duck with Soy Sauce", which is what he calls Peking Duck. He had recovered from his loss of bladder control of September 2017 which happened when he fainted and had to go to the Emergency Room five times in that month alone, so when he asked to go potty several times while we waited outside the court room, I took him immediately. He was not having to wear diapers anymore and I wanted him to be able to stay out of diapers for the rest of his life. I had no reason to suspect something sneaky was going on with PETERSEN DEAN.

I saw a man who looked exactly like George Milionis, the attorney for PETERSEN DEAN sitting on the bench next to ours. He did not nod or say hello like most people do. I figured he knew who we were because he's seen the photos on this blog. Also, I was the ONLY lady in her 60's with an adult autistic son in the area. Case BC661819  was the ONLY case scheduled for that room. It would be kind of hard not to deduce that we were the people being sued by PETERSEN DEAN.

The man I saw looked like this:

I tried the court room door several times. It was locked. James had to go to the bathroom again. I took him to the nearby restroom and returned to try the court door. The courtroom was finally unlocked. I asked the clerk if I could have time to go downstairs to file our reply that I brought with me before the hearing. To my surprise, she told me the hearing was over. That was fast. I had come to court to ask if the hearing could be moved to 2017 to give me more time to find an attorney. That happened in spite of us missing the hearing. 

Why did PETERSEN DEAN avoid us? It wasn't just that they had the hearing as fast as they could, knowing we were there but not wanting us to be part of the hearing. My son and I spent the rest of the day in the court house filing the reply and learning how to send a copy to PETERSEN DEAN. The Los Angeles Sheriff's office said they couldn't serve PETERSEN DEAN in Fremont, California.  I called George Milionis and he did not answer. I left a message asking if he could give me a Los Angeles address the Sheriff's office could serve documents to. He never called back. I called PETERSEN DEAN'S regular number and told them their attorney was not returning my calls and could they provide me a local address to serve legal responses to. They said they would give the message to their attorney George Milionis. No one called back. A  court clerk told me I could go to a certain room and access the court records to search for a local address in the court filings. I found a Santa Clarita address and went back to the Sheriff's office on the 5th floor to ask if that would work. The Sheriff said that I could serve via mail directly to George Milionis in Fremont, that I could go downstairs and buy the forms to do that.

 I was told by the filing window clerk that my reply needed a cover sheet and I had to punch holes on the top of the two and a half inch thick documents, that I could go across the street to the Law Library. I felt weak when I drove to the court and all the walking made me feel even weaker. I went across the street to the law library. I told the clerks at the desk that I was ill and if I fainted there was a large card in my purse with instructions on who to call to take care of James until I was ok. I typed a cover sheet on their public computer. I was just about to print it when all the computers at the long table made a strange noise and went off line. Everyone working there lost the documents they were writing. Rather than risk that happening twice, I wrote the cover sheet in long hand and then punched holes on the top of the three copies of the REPLY and went across the street to file it. The clerks at the law library confirmed what the photos on the wall at the Superior Court filing room stated, that patience was required because the last time their computers systems were updated, cell phones looked like this:

The law library clerk laughed loud when I answered, "Well, no wonder the Russian hacked us. We need to keep up with the times."

All the clerks were nice to James. They noticed we were tired and dragging our feet, but we didn't quit until the work was done. Then James got his much anticipated reward: Dinner at Chinatown.

This is James at the window in the courthouse where you buy forms.

Of course this was one of the letters we filed so the court could learn what PETERSEN DEAN did not want to the court to know.

James on the roof of Superior Court where we had to go to get good reception to call George Milionis to ask him for a local address we could serve PETERSEN DEAN our reply documents. That is City Hall in the background.

In the room where the court clerks told us we could see our case on computer, I saw that PETERSEN DEAN made many sneaky attempts in 2017 to set up steal our house without us finding out until it was too late. I am grateful and lucky the court did not let PETERSEN DEAN do that to us. PETERSEN DEAN lied to the court about not being able to contact us. I was in constant contact with their insurance company, CAP SPECIALTY and with the CSLB. Everyone knew where we were. It is really odd to be sued by someone who hides from you and tells the court they can't find you, that in effect, you don't care if they take your home.

After all the work was done we drove to nearby Chinatown. We had hot and sour soup. Just a small bowl made me very sleepy. We had plenty of leftovers that we took home that I will reheat for Thanksgiving.

Hot and sour soup.

James can't read and doesn't have much language, so it is nice when the menu has photos.

 James enjoyed the tea and was very happy to be at dinner. He learned a new word today: Court House.

We went straight home after dinner and I had some raw garlic and Blackberry Sambucol to fend off the sore throat and stuffy nose that came out of the blue that afternoon. I can't afford to get sicker. We don't have safe housing because of what PETERSEN DEAN has done. We don't have access to any forming of a heater for this winter. We are going to have to fight hard to stay alive and we will.

Breakfast the next morning: Reheated hot and sour soup with more tofu and some snow peas thrown in.

We are thankful to still be alive, thankful that so far PETERSEN DEAN has failed to snatch our home away from us. We are thankful for social media, grateful that we don't have to go through this terrifying ordeal alone. Thank you for reading our story.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!