BREAKING NEWS – ORAL ARGUMENTS in the AXANAR LAWSUIT have been CANCELED for next Monday!

courthouse-photo-1The motions for summary judgment had been filed last month by both parties in the AXANAR lawsuit, followed by opposition briefs and reply briefs from both sides.  Next Monday, at 9:00 a.m. at the Ninth Circuit Federal Court Building, lawyers from both sides were scheduled to appear before Judge R. Gary Klausner to argue the merits of their motions and oppose the other side.  And I was planning to be there.

Looks like I don’t have to schlep to downtown anymore.  The court just sent the following message to the attorneys in the case:

SCHEDULING NOTICE TO ALL PARTIES AND ORDER by Judge R. Gary Klausner. Plaintiffs CBS Studios Inc. and Paramount Pictures Corporation’s Motion for Partial Summary Judgment [72, 85] and Defendants Axanar Productions, Inc. and Alec Peters’ Motion for Summary Judgment [75], calendared for hearing on December 19, 2016, have been taken under submission and off the motion calendar. No appearances by counsel are necessary. The Court will issue a ruling after full consideration of properly submitted pleadings. IT IS SO ORDERED.

In other words, Judge Klausner will decide the motions based solely on the documents that have been filed.  This is not unusual for him.  In fact, I am told that it’s unusual for him to NOT cancel oral arguments!

And so his decision could come at any moment–today, tomorrow, next week–and when it does, you can believe I’m gonna post it as soon as I can!!!

23 thoughts on “BREAKING NEWS – ORAL ARGUMENTS in the AXANAR LAWSUIT have been CANCELED for next Monday!”

        1. At this point, strongly suspect the judge has already read enough of both sides arguments to make a cursory decision, and to at least ensure he canove this case along.. Sincerely hoping he tends more towards the “scalpel” over the “hammer”…

  6. I know many who dislikes the series, but to quote it’s intro…

    “It’s been a long time, getting from here to there.”

    The lawsuit was first announced almost exactly 365 days ago. If I have one Christmas wish, it is for a positive outcome for Axanar (and the rest of fandom). While it can be argued that Alec Peters may or may not have done things inappropriately, the idea of Axanar is a good thing (more Trek for the fans). So long as the creators of Axanar don’t profit off of it, I really don’t see the harm. It’s been that way for 50 years without any major incidents.

  7. Is Klausner really going to read through a thousand pages of documents? (Per Jonathan’s comment.)

    One of the points you made regarding the motions is that the Plaintiffs make a lot of strong claims, but don’t seem to back them up with evidence. It seems to me that the evidence (if it exists) would be in these supporting documents. Therefore, a ruling could hinge substantially on (at least some of) the contents of those thousand pages.

    But since the Plaintiffs didn’t seem to bother highlighting any of those documents (as best I can tell), how is the judge going to know what to focus on? Is there another summary document you haven’t discussed here? If so, that would be an interesting topic for discussion.

    1. Actually, a “thousand” pages was a bit of hyperbole on my part, Elliott. It’s closer to maybe 300-400 pages. But what’s most important in all of that are the 100 pages of motions, oppositions, and replies. (20 pages + 20 pages + 20 pages + 20 pages + 10 pages + 10 pages = 100 pages) The rest are simply documents that support those main filings, and they’re referenced within the motions and briefs. Just look when something is quoted or attributed to something…you’ll see a little parenthetical note at the end of the sentence telling the judge where he can find the original. It’s the “No, we’re not just making this up” part of the filing. Likely, the judge won’t spend too much time checking back on those attributed sources…although he’ll probably check a few. Who knows for sure? I’m told Klausner is VERY thorough, though. Also, some of the pages are just bureaucratic “house-keeping”–sworn declarations that this or that attorney was really at this or that deposition. Those can probably be ignored completely.

      So really, the judge is mainly concerned with just 100 pages. 🙂

  8. To quote Sir Winston Churchill, I think this may apply. “Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.”

    2. Winston Churchill said this? That’s interesting. Never knew that!

      I’ve only ever heard it in one place. I believe it was at the end of ‘Millennium’ (1989).

      I suppose I shouldn’t be too surprised. Writers often usurp the quotes of others for their own stories.

Comments are closed.