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I wanted to look further into the Milwaukee County Circuit Court's activity and the COVID backlog and just spent about 40 mins scrolling through all Foreign Judgements domesticated in Milwaukee since 2018. Some interesting stuff in there; main takeaways (note: am not a lawyer):
- The Good News (skip this if you only care about Pat): The court website is horrifically disorganized and the cases statuses mean nothing -- Tons of active "Filed Only" cases have indeed had hearings and/or been satisfied. Within the COVID backlog of unheard, open cases, a fair number of "active - filed-only" judgements have long been fully satisfied by the debtor (by their free will) but legally remain open due to lack of action by the court. There's debtors who paid off their judgement debts in full over 3 years ago but still have the active case open as no judge has looked at it yet to formally close it. This is irrelevant to Pat's case as he won't pay his debt willingly out of court, just something for brothermen to be aware of when trying to predict when Pat's case will be looked at and his exam scheduled/wages garnished.
- The Bad News: They are still only hearing mostly 2019 cases right now; <5 cases filed after 01/01/2021 have had any hearings or action taken, all involving either a federal department or state government vs. a debtor (except for one filed by Bank of America). Not a single FJ otherwise from 2021 or 2022 has had a hearing yet or has even been looked at by a clerk or judge, and only a couple from 2020 and late-2019 (note: there are 45-55 FJs in Milwaukee every year). Example below of what most 2019 cases look like (#2019FJ000055, 2019FJ000010).
- The Milwaukee County Circuit Court is really, really fond of judicial transfers. Essentially every case within the COVID backlog has had the court official changed 2-3 times without ever being looked at by any of them.
- All satisfied judgements 2018-2022 (none in 2023) were paid out of court on the debtor's free will; none with an unwilling/incapable/obstructive debtor have been satisfied (as almost none have had hearings for any court action to be considered).
- In all cases that debtors did not show up to Zoom court meetings or otherwise ignored the court contacting them, the court's reaction was to kick the can down the line and just reschedule the hearing without punishment (on repeat).
- A majority of FJs are between two companies, but for those involving individual citizens as debtors, 95% of them are black people (with ridiculous names) not paying back their loans or caught running scams.
Aside from Pat's case, other individual-citizen debtors named in FJs filed in Jan-Feb 2023 include a Peaches Drummond, Chela Regina Andrews, Shonda Gregory, and Jaqueline Claymon; only other debtors are a couple white guys.
- Example: Judgement filed 2-18-2022, fully satisfied by the debtor in July 2022. Since then the case has undergone 2 judicial transfers (now on its 3rd) but still hasn't been looked at by any judge to be formally closed+dismissed, and thus remains active.
- The Bad News: They are still only hearing mostly 2019 cases right now; <5 cases filed after 01/01/2021 have had any hearings or action taken, all involving either a federal department or state government vs. a debtor (except for one filed by Bank of America). Not a single FJ otherwise from 2021 or 2022 has had a hearing yet or has even been looked at by a clerk or judge, and only a couple from 2020 and late-2019 (note: there are 45-55 FJs in Milwaukee every year). Example below of what most 2019 cases look like (#2019FJ000055, 2019FJ000010).
- The Milwaukee County Circuit Court is really, really fond of judicial transfers. Essentially every case within the COVID backlog has had the court official changed 2-3 times without ever being looked at by any of them.
- All satisfied judgements 2018-2022 (none in 2023) were paid out of court on the debtor's free will; none with an unwilling/incapable/obstructive debtor have been satisfied (as almost none have had hearings for any court action to be considered).
- In all cases that debtors did not show up to Zoom court meetings or otherwise ignored the court contacting them, the court's reaction was to kick the can down the line and just reschedule the hearing without punishment (on repeat).
- A majority of FJs are between two companies, but for those involving individual citizens as debtors, 95% of them are black people (with ridiculous names) not paying back their loans or caught running scams.
Aside from Pat's case, other individual-citizen debtors named in FJs filed in Jan-Feb 2023 include a Peaches Drummond, Chela Regina Andrews, Shonda Gregory, and Jaqueline Claymon; only other debtors are a couple white guys.
Honest Prediction: It is likely going to be 4-4.5 years (give or take 6 months) until the Cloudflare judgement is addressed and anything happens. However, as many have said, the 10% annual interest is just going to continue to add up. With Pat ignoring the judgement, the court backlog being this long only makes things significantly worse for him. It does really sting for us on the edge of our seats here, though, but payday will come eventually. Quasi's a true madman for sticking to his guns.
Edit:
Milwaukee County court system backlog may not clear until 2024
How bad is the backlog in the Milwaukee County court system? A 1,500 felony case backlog means victims and defendants will have to wait, despite a $14 million dollar investment intended to clear it.
Wisconsin on brink of constitutional crisis as courts face unprecedented DA, public defender shortage
Editors Note: Our Managing Editor, Steve Schuster spoke to Judges, the Office of Lawyer Regulation, Federal Prosecutors, District Attorneys throughout the Midwest, the State Bar of Wisconsin, Wisconsin Attorney General, Governor Tony's Evers office, as well as legislatures to determine the full...
wislawjournal.com
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