Everyone's been asking for an update in "The Case of the Bullying Bitch-Beating Brute", so here it is:

Reading solely from the police report and having spoken with my coworker, the lawyer I've been speaking with believes the testimony of the witnesses is terribly shoddy and there are a lot of holes in the case. (Which is plenty true.) The contact information for the witnesses was redacted, and the police report he could get was only a faxed copy from the public defender, so it's not the best quality. He wants to speak to the witnesses but suspects he'll be unable to do so until the actual trial.

This all sounds promising until you consider he used the turn of phrase, "I believe you did nothing that merits criminal prosecution" -- emphasis on the first two words. He used this in context of striking a deal to end the proceedings in exchange for an anger management class or somesuch, so I'm not sure to interpret it as, "Even though you did nothing wrong, you'd still be best making this sort of deal" or "...but we'll never convince the courts of that". Cynically I believe the latter. I have no faith in the system at this point, and doubt I ever will again.

I'm getting a discount because my mother worked for the law firm. That being said, the retainer is still over twice what I can readily afford. At best, I will have to borrow money from my parents, which they don't really have themselves. At worst I'll be applying for a loan, on short notice, in today's economy. I'm honestly not certain how I'm going to make this work. It may just end up being desperation. I'll see. Hey, I wanted to lose weight... ^.^

There are a couple of upsides to life at the moment. I passed a dental examination without incident, to my complete and utter shock. Also, my promotion has finally processed, and I'm earning some extra every paycheck because of it. I'm very much hoping my luck is starting to change... though to be honest, with the figures quoted, I'm not sure at all.