On Thursday, August 18, the motion hearing for the Motion to Show Cause for Civil Contempt and to Enforce Preliminary Injunction (“Contempt Motion”) was changed from a court hearing to a Zoom conference at 1:30pm PST. While this hearing was originally set in an attempt for the Judge to rule on the Contempt Motion, the parties informed Judge Chhabria that they were in the middle of settlement negotiations and were in the process of reaching a settlement agreement that should happen as early as that day. As such, they requested that the Judge would hold his clarification questions and not rule on the Contempt Motion to “bring up the heat” (as the Defendant/USCIS’ attorney put it) until they submit the settlement agreement to the judge. In light of these circumstances, the Judge and the parties agreed to postpone the motion hearing to next Wednesday. If a settlement is reached before the next hearing, as the parties suggested would happen, and the Judge approves such settlement without the need to ask any clarification questions, then the Contempt Motion may be dismissed, and the case would be settled.
We can see that USCIS does not want to be charged with Contempt, and that they are really trying to make an effort to settle before Wednesday. It appears that an amicable settlement is very close to being reached by the parties, which is a wonderful sign that regional centers may be able to start operating normally again next week. We hope that this means that our investors can start filing next week!
For your reference, the next motion hearing is currently scheduled to be held next Wednesday, August 24 at 1:00PM PST via Zoom at this link.
Webinar ID: 161 285 7657
Password: 547298
