mēdēˈāSH(ə)n

No one wins in court. I learned that many years ago, and believe me, I've spent my fair share of time litigating and defending litigation. To be clear, really no one wins in the legal process in general because the vast majority of court cases, especially frivolous garbage based on HOA and building code law, will never see the inside of a court room.

Normally both parties are well aware of this fact going into the process which is why it came as no surprise when my lawyer reached out to let me know that we had a mediation date scheduled for our lovely complaint against the Pinnacle Paradise HOA.

But, let's back up for a minute. I know what you're thinking because literally most of you have asked me outright already.

"What has taken so long to get this update out!? What's going on with your HOA?"

Well, first and foremost as I hinted at before, it's a really bad idea to keep a real-time blog while involved in an active lawsuit. Literally, anything you want to share would be tipping your hat to the other side. Not that I believe these folks are actively monitoring this site, and due to their average age of 153, even capable of accessing the internet through the whirl and beep of their AOL dial up DVD. But, yet social media remains a really bad idea - as my lawyer constantly reminded me at a rate of 500/hr. So, perhaps that is what has taken me so long to get this update out, that, coupled with the fact that the outcome is pretty disappointing and frankly something I'm not really proud of. In truth, it's frankly a lot more of the latter than the former. We all want to tell gallant stories of victory, bowling over the evil villian and defiantly raising arms in victory as our boot, pressed firmly on the throat of the oppressor, evokes gasps and sputters of apology rising from denture filled mouths. But alas, that's not this story here.

When I received the notice of our mediation date I knew, for the most part, what would take place. For those of you who haven't been involved in a lawsuit (first off, good on you - keep it up), a mediation is a very normal step in litigation. It's a process that allows the court system to make one last ditch appeal to encourage the waring parties to put on their big girl panties and settle their dispute like adults. Unfortunately. because I am generally unwilling to compromise on most things, based on principal, I have found myself in quite a few of these exercises. However. surprisingly, mediation has been an incredibly successful process for me. This occurs for the most part because it normally takes place somewhere around the mid-way point in the process. This means that both sides have had ample time to pay legal bills, and some of the gusto that originally accompanied the complaint (and likely counter-suit) has been eroded by invoice payments. The average lawsuit of this nature costs somewhere in the neighborhood of $75,000 to litigate. That's no small amount of money. And therein lies the rub. The reason mediation is so successful is simply due to mathematics - at some point in every lawsuit the sunk cost investment equation begins to creep into the heads of all involved. Simply paraphrased, what will it cost to win vs. what will it cost to get out now.

And that brings us to the day of mediation.

I went into the mediation process with a $45,000 penalty hanging over my head (for those who read pt.3 of the blog). Again, to recap I'm looking at 75K if legal bills to win a lawsuit in order to avoid a 45k payment. Welcome to insanity. Now, generally, the prevailing party should be entitled to their legal expenses but that's far from a 'given' and taking into account the state of the HOA's financials (remember I'm also a member of the party that I'm suing) that's pretty much an impossibility. So, long story short, things aren't looking super promising for the case, nor the possibility of reaching a settlement that results in anything financially logical for us. Keep in mind, I'm not looking for a payday here - I'm simply looking to build a home where I can raise my family without the nefarious oversight of those with far too much time on their hands, and yet, very little time left on earth. Conundrums all around.

So, we did what any red-blooded american would do in this situation.

We settled.

It's un-sexy and anti-climactic, but it's effective in achieving the goal. The goal is of course, to get on with our lives. We settled for roughly half of their initial figure. For context, it was equal to my first salary after I graduated from college. And I don't even want to think about what it translates to in terms of value to my son. Whether it's four years of college at a state school or one year of college at a private school or amortized across a 401k to equal some un-godly number in 65 years. But even as the number stands today - it's fucking WAY too much.

It's an abomination of justice. Period.

Even though the short term math works out, and even though it's technically a win when compared to the prospect of tearing the home down and lowering it 4"; it it will haunt me for the rest of my days based on the fact that I couldn't think of a way to avoid lighting a small piece of my son's future on fire. Perhaps the only redeeming aspect of this whole unfathomable process is that I truly believe that they should feel worse than I do about the result. But I doubt that's the case. Morality doesn't live here. And if it does, it's not yet on the board.

But that's all about to change.

Recently two spots opened up on the PPHOA board, and I'll be dammed if we didn't submit Jen's name as a candidate. And for those two slots, they received only two nominations.

Perhaps morality wins by default.

#mediation #lawsuit #HOA #sanity #settlement