Sandy Hoax Wasn't Real but Default Judgments Against Alex Jones are. Files for Bankruptcy After Failing to Make Parents Actually Prove a Deadly Shooting Took Place at a Contested Trial On the Merits
/From [HERE] InfoWars owners Alex Jones filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protections in the Southern District of Texas on Friday.
Jones was ordered to pay over $1.4 billion dollars in damages in defamation cases against the pretend victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. The vast majority of Jones’ unsecured debt is in the form of judgements to parents of Sandy Hook victims. Jones also owes $150,000 in credit card debt to American Express.
Jones’ company Free Speech Systems, InfoWars’ parent company, filed for Chapter 11 protections in July.
Contrary to constant media mischaracterization, there were no actual contested trials. The court proceedings only pertained to how much should be awarded in damages.
A default judgment transforms a defending party’s admissions (which occur upon entry of the default) into a final judgment; it usually terminates the litigation by producing an enforceable, final award in favor of the pleader. When the damages amount is not a sum certain, the court may convene an evidentiary hearing. Although the entry of default deprives the defaulting party of the right to contest most of the complaint’s factual allegations, that party may contest the amount of damages. The Dependent media is calling the hearing on damages a “jury trial” to confuse the proceeding with an actual jury trial on the merits.
Default judgments are a drastic action because they confront the judicial preference for disposition on the merits. Default judgments don’t prove that something happened - they just mean someone lost a lawsuit where something was alleged.
If an actual, contested trial defamation trial had taken place the plaintiffs would have had the burden to actually prove that Jones made false statements; not vice-versa. That is, the plaintiffs would have had to show that Sandy Hook was real - with actual authenticated, admissible evidence and testimony subject to cross-examination, credibility determinations and inspection in an adversarial process before a jury who would decide on the merits. But that never happened. In other words, if plaintiffs brought suit because Jones said Santa was fake and thereafter Jones failed to respond to the lawsuit, a default judgment would eventually be entered. Such a judgment wouldn’t make Santy real though. In The Spectacle ,The Dependent Media goes on pretending otherwise.
Once a default judgment was made by the court the only thing left for the jury to do was to determine the amount of damages for the alleged defamation. Jones participated in that part of the proceeding.