Jackson hires a RLUPIA lawyer, Agudah asks Judge to move case forward

A game of tossing around blame has begun in Jackson Township. Jacksonleaks reports:
"The hot potato has just been passed to them though. On February 26th, Jackson agreed to pay $800 per hour"

Agudath Israel, currently suing Jackson over bans on eruvs, schools, and dormitories, lobbed the first flaming spud last week with a letter blaming the township for unilaterally scuttling the results of over a year of negotiations. The letter to Judge Douglas Alpert, overseeing the case, alleges that the two sides came to an agreement in December that Jackson then ignored and discarded.



Jackson and Agudath Israel were ordered to mediation in August 2017. A few months later, in November 2017, both parties signed a preliminary settlement bringing litigation to a standstill. Jackson would allow an eruv on utility poles while the plaintiffs would not file any motions in court and would “discourage OPRA demands” on Jackson. According to court dockets, since then the parties have met and updated the judge almost monthly as settlement talks progressed on the other matters in the lawsuit.

Jackson and Agudath Israel submitted reports and met monthly with the judge for much of 2018.
If one side was to be seen as acting in bad faith, this could definitely raise the ire of the judge who has been spending time on this case for a year and a half. This is exactly what Agudath Israel’s letter suggests, that Jackson participated in negotiation solely to delay the case and seemed to agree to a settlement only to pretend that it never happened. Jackson has yet to throw the blame back, but there is a hearing on March 13th to discuss next steps in the case. read full article here