Judge Rudofsky Gives Pro Se 5 Days for ‘Emergency’ Response, Billion-Dollar Firm Gets 10 to Reply

People who read a law blog might be slow at math. At least it seems Judge Lee P. Rudofsky is, so here it is simplified:

Portfolio Recovery Associates filed an “emergency” order asking to “take down” this blog on December 20, 2024 at 2:30 p.m.

Purportedly I filed documents that were ordered under seal and PRA did not get a copy of my motion to SCOTUS asking to file the documents under seal and then unseal them. PRA in fact received the service copy of the motion on October 28, 2024, according to USPS tracking. The motion was granted in full, in writing on December 9, 2024. On December 10th, someone on the SCOTUS staff called me and said the motion I filed was granted only in part, but to date, there is no writing to memorialize that. I deleted the documents anyhow, because I don’t love chaos as much as PRA does.

It took PRA 11 days to file the “emergency” motion. December 20th was the Friday before Christmas week.

PRA served me by email at 2:44 p.m. Judge Rudofsky denied me access to electronic filing, one of my complaints to the Supreme Court. So, I did not certify and was not required to check my emails daily for notifications. I did not see the motion until Sunday afternoon.

At 3:21 p.m. PRA served me a copy of the text entry order Judge Rudofsky wrote on December 20th, at 2:55 p.m. He ordered me to respond by December 27th. He specified that there would be no extension granted. Because Rudofsky denied me electronic filing privileges, I would need to have four printed copies delivered to the courthouse, a 30-minute drive from my home with perfect road conditions, by 5 p.m. That was seven days if I happened to check my emails on the afternoon of a holiday week.

On Monday, December 23rd, at 10:57 a.m. I sent an email to the Judge’s clerk. I explained that while I was typing the email, a process server came to deliver the motion. I asked for an order granting an extension to Monday, December 30th.

There was no response from the court before December 26th. Since I worked through Christmas, I had a response almost ready by then. The response from the clerk said, “‘Judge says you can have until December 30, 2024.  This extension is solely a matter of discretion and not based on any examination of the accuracy of your extension request.'” That was in quotation marks. There was no docket number or indication that this was a signed order. Because the judge has lied before, I did not trust this hearsay, unsigned, unfiled, unserved instruction. (No copy of the permission followed by snail-mail, as is customary. In fact, the court did not send a follow-up paper copy of the December 20th order, either. [UPDATE January 6, 2024: The December 20th order was sent by snail-mail postmarked December 23, 2024. It did not appear on USPS Informed Delivery, which I can prove with screenshots of daily activity. I am just now opening the mail that came after December 22nd that did not seem emergent based on the picture on Informed Delivery, including Christmas cards sent by friends.)

I filed my response at about 3:00 on December 27, 2024. I try to leave my house early, in case of a flat tire, accident, whatever. There were few cars on the road and the street in front of the courthouse had no other parked cars. It felt like the three clerks and four or five guards were there just waiting for me.

Then on January 2, 2025, six days after I filed, and three days after the date the clerk said a judge said I could file the “emergency” motion, Judge Rudofsky wrote a text entry only order on the docket. He told PRA to have its team of attorneys from Rose Law Firm and Troutman Pepper to reply by January 6, 2025.

Are you following the math? The reply was due 10 days after the response to the “emergency” motion was filed.

The “officers of the court” are allowed to file electronically, while sitting at home in their underwear.

Judge Rudofsky effectively gave the billion-dollar company twice as long to reply to the so-called emergency than he gave me to respond.

If Judge Rudofsky, who is not a Christian, had other plans Christmas week that would interfere with making a quick decision…like he made when PRA filed the motion… then why was it so important that I research and write my response during Christmas week?

Answer: He has to keep the Big Business Billionaires happy.

And the Big Business Billionaires are only happy when they can oppress and enslave the commoners.