Judge Susan Kaye Weaver Abuse of Discretion?

Often regular folk who can’t afford an attorney will try to represent him or herself in court. The fancy lawyer word for this is “pro se” or “pro per”.

Judges and lawyers don’t care for self-represented litigants much. My sister was an attorney and sometime judge pro tem (another fancy lawyer word meaning temporarily). She liked to call self-represented litigants “im pro per”. Very punny.

It seems like some attorneys and even judges treat pro se litigants unfairly. An educated guess for the motivation is that the ones with the law degrees think the self-represented won’t know the rules, making it easy to cheat. The elitists probably get away with this unethical conduct more often than not.

But our laws are based on fairness, and people generally know when they are being treated unjustly.

The problem is that most of the people who are not educated in law can’t express themselves in a way that is easy to understand.

Many pro se litigants have made comments on my blogs and articles. Often, they sound like rants.

In a case like one presided over by Judge Susan Weaver in Searcy County, Arkansas, in which I am the defendant and counterclaimant, there are many moving parts. It is not easy to give a concise synopsis that someone with a sixth-grade education can understand. (That is the way I was taught to write when I studied journalism at Colorado State University decades back.)

So, I will discuss just one bite size piece here.

Judge Weaver appears to have abused the discretion allowed to a judge because in similar situations she acted in a different way.

For example, in the case against me, Pietrczak, 65CV-21-20, I learned about the case on my own. No summons was served on me to that point. There was a second defendant, a trust, and no summons was issued on the trust. Of course with no summons issued, there could be no summons served.

On June 10, 2021, a few days after I came upon the internet case docket, I filed a motion for continuance. The docket said there would be a “final hearing” on August 4, 2021 and all parties would need to file their exhibits for the trial. It seemed obvious to me that we were not ready for trial.

There was no summons issued on a joint defendant.

There was no summons served on me.

There was no opportunity for discovery.

Judge Weaver acted like she disagreed. She ignored my motion for continuance.

I contacted the Trial Court Administer, also a Weaver, Tammy Weaver. She said my motion was unacceptable.

Mid-July I filed a second motion for continuance. Judge Susan Weaver ignored that one also.

About July 28, 2021 I contacted the TCA again. She said the second motion was unacceptable. I was perplexed. I had basically copied a motion for continuance written by an attorney that was granted by a different judge.

So, I spent a weekend with a paid assistant and prepared 25 exhibits for trial. Then I filed the exhibits with Tammy Weaver and the court reporter, Jana Perry. I also filed the exhibits with the clerk for the docket, because I knew there was something fishy going on.

Plaintiff’s counsel, William Z. White of Heber Springs did not file any exhibits.

At the Zoom hearing on August 4, 2021, there was no jury assembled for voir dire.

Mr. White asked for a continuance and Judge Weaver granted it.

Basically, the Court caused me to tip my hand to the opposing party. When they saw that I would win, they decided to postpone the “game”.

Judges have a wide leeway to schedule trials and give continuances. It is called judicial discretion.

But, a judge’s rulings should not defy all logic. And there should be consistency.

There was another case involving Judge Weaver and attorney White, Joseph Miller v. FL Davis Center Inc, et al, 71CV-19-28. Willy White came into the case as a defense attorney late. He filed a motion for continuance, to give himself a chance to get up to speed. The hearing he wanted to continue was set for September 24, 2019.

Mr. White filed his motion on September 19, 2019.

Judge Weaver continued the hearing on September 24, 2019 by a text entry on the docket.

Judge Weaver signed a formal order to continue the hearing of September 24th on September 26th.

Here is a screen shot of the docket and a downloadable copy of the order. Notice that there were a lot of details on the order left blank.

Why, oh why, would Judge Weaver decide to grant a continuance to William Zack White’s client for a motion filed days before or on the day of a hearing, but not grant a continuance for a pro se litigant who was not served summons yet?

A. Judge Susan Weaver has no common sense.

B. Judge Susan Weaver is cognitively challenged.

C. Judge Susan Weaver is unethical.

D. All of the above.