Summary of the first day of hearing for the application for authorization of the class action lawsuit against the Watchtower in Quebec(Canada), Montreal Courthouse. December 17, 2018.
Unfortunately, the courtroom was small and there were not enough seats. On our side, there were the same two attorneys from Woods' lawyers, and there were about 30 people who attended the hearing on our side, some left early, others arrived later. On the side of the JWs, they had 2 lawyers plus their assistants, that is 4 people, but who are not JWs, but they are very close to the affairs of the Watchtower, the same guys as on November 27th and in the audience, they were about 16 plus 3 high ranked Watchtower representatives, including one from NY, the same guys as at the November 27 hearing.
One of the Watchtower's two lawyers repeated the same arguments as on November 27, saying that the Quebec Superior Court can not judge American corporations and that the various Watchtower corporations have nothing to do with each others or with the one in Canada, etc. The lawyer on our side, argued the opposite with several supporting evidences, in various publications and letters and manuals from the JWs organization, as well as texts of laws. She also mentioned the interrogation of Thomas Jefferson Jr., who behaved exactly as in Stephanie Fessler's trial against Watchtower, with vague or circular answers, pretending to ignore certain things, which undermined his credibility. Other topics were also discussed. There have been no testimonies for the moment.
Watchtower lawyers said since yesterday that they will invoke the statute of limitations. This is new, they had never mentioned this intention in recent weeks. Maybe they feel endangered. Also one of the lawyers also tried to minimize the blunders of Thomas Jefferson Jr.
To follow tomorrow, it continues, the decision of the judge will probably be early enough perhaps in January 2019.