Steve Eick here again.  Last Thursday we had our pre-trial settlement conference with Judge Dorothy F. French, Eighteenth Judicial Circuit. In small claims court cases settlement conferences are pretty rare, although it’s also pretty rare for 14-year kids to be suing each other. (back story on the stolen ipod lawsuit, here, here, here, and here)

Judge French said, from what she has read, the media has completely blown this case. It seemed to her that both girls are victims of a crime. The real criminal is the kid who took the iPod from Shannon’s unattended purse. If the case were to go to trial, Ms. McCarthy would need to prove that Stephanie was negligent in returning the iPod, which according to Stephanie was placed in Shannon’s purse on her desk while Shannon was in the room and according to Ms. McCarthy was placed on her desk next to her purse while Shannon was in the bathroom. Furthermore, in Illinois minors generally need to be at least 15-years old to assume responsibility and thus Ms. McCarthy would need to prove the return, whether to the purse or desk, was grossly negligent when applied to a 13-year old. As a defendant, we would need to argue that Stephanie’s actions were reasonable for a 13-year old.

In the event that Ms. McCarthy was successful in obtaining a judgment, unless Stephanie is a heiress, which she is not, the judgment would go into collections proceedings. As a minor, without assets, a job, or even the potential of getting a job, Ms McCarthy would have difficulty enforcing the judgment.

Judge French recommended that the parties attempt to resolve the dispute without a trial since a trial would leave at least one side and perhaps two unhappy. She also pointed out that in the event of a trial she would ignore anything she had read in the media, listen to the evidence, and make her decision. She suggested several creative, “out of the box” solutions.

Although we feel Stephanie’s actions were completely appropriate, we put two settlement offers on the table: my original offer of $100 and a second offer of Stephanie’s iPod 30 GB Video for the stolen 2 GB iPod Nano. We are meeting again in Judge French’s quarters on Nov 9.