And so, the saga ends not with a whimper…. but with a big check.

I had a note from my attorney today: “Dan Willard paid up today. Both the sanctions, and the fees. Thought you’d like to know.”   And so, it marks the end of my involvement in the State of SD vs. Dan Willard.

The Dan Willard case. You remember that – The whole robocall thing? Yes, that case has still been dragging on.

I wrote about my award in the case. Of course, that was back in December 2013:

CONCLUSION: After careful consideration of the four factors provided by the South Dakota Supreme Court in Guthrie, the Court finds reasonable the imposition of sanctions in the amount of $250.00 for issuing the subpoena to Mr. Powers in bad faith, and $250.00 for issuing the subpoena to Mr. Lederman in bad faith. The Court imposes terms equaling a total of $500.00 against the defendant, Daniel Willard.

As a result of all of this, the court set the precedent that some bloggers, in this case, specifically me, are Journalists in the eyes of the law. And, that Daniel Willard was pursuing this matter against me in bad faith.

Read that long ago post here.

And after about, oh, 26 months. Willard finally paid. But not for lack of trying to get out of it. He filed a notice of appeal, extensions, etc. to drag it out to the point where my attorney had to go to a hearing for his failure to pay the $250.

Willard had to be served, and other costs made it rack up to the point where another $3100 in fees were accrued in just trying to serve notice that he’d failed in paying the original $500. And I don’t think Judge Foley was entirely pleased that it drug on this long, especially since he let Willard off the hook for $10,000 of court costs to begin with.

But, it seems Willard finally came to his senses, finally paying the $500 in court fees. And another $3100 in costs beyond that.

It might have just been cheaper to pay them in the first place.

4 thoughts on “And so, the saga ends not with a whimper…. but with a big check.”

  1. Is Mr. Willard still in politics, then? This court action hasn’t barred him from running other candidates. I only ask because our common friend Bob might play well with this Willard fellow. Future campaigns and all.

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