Professor F. Michael Higginbotham says…

“On Monday, June 20, 2022, Mike Suter was informed that the Hank Friedman Civil Trial had been postponed from its July 5, 2022 date until sometime in February 2023. Several people asked Suter about why the trial was postponed and what such a postponement might mean. Suter asked me what I thought.

Without a crystal ball or information from the attorney who requested the continuance or the judge who granted the postponement, it is difficult to know the exact reason for the court's permitting such a delay. Under California rules of court, postponements are disfavored.  Yet each request for a trial continuance must be considered on its own merits.  Disfavored has generally meant that a grant of continuance should only be made upon a showing of good cause.  One of the reasons that might constitute good cause is when additional plaintiffs come forward and request time to engage in discovery (gathering facts relevant to the trial).

Based on developments depicted in The Beverly Press newspaper, June 22, 2022, at least two targets of Hank Friedman while he was employed at BHHS have recently retained legal counsel. Such circumstances might well constitute good cause justifying a continuance until 2023. This is especially so when one considers that the legislation extending the statute of limitations on sexual misconduct against adolescents set the date for filing suits at December 31,2022.

A February 2023 trial date would allow for all potential plaintiffs against Hank Friedman to join the current civil suit. Without additional information relevant to the cause for continuance, my crystal ball tells me that the good cause for postponement of the July 5 trial date relates to the circumstance that new plaintiffs have come forward.”