My question involves court procedures for the state of: Hawaii
Hi,
I have a local student housing company trying to sue me for defamation for a tasteful Facebook "Note" (blog/review) due to the random popularity it unexpectedly received. They were more or less just trying to scare me, surely hinted by the mass inactivity (or perhaps the accidental slip of the plaintiff contradicting himself through a press release, indirectly saying they lost no money from my "defamatory comments; oops!).
The case has been going for 1 year and 10 months and has been idle for 1 year and 5 months. I'm told by two attorneys giving me generic advice that my case should have been dismissed by now and are unsure why it's not (1 suggested lazy clerks of court? no idea).
I have a significant chance I will get a scholarship to study Chinese in Taipei, Taiwan for 1 year, starting this September; I just got notification that I am a finalist. I was hoping this case would be out of the way by now, but it's still not dismissed. Should I file an official motion to dismiss, or write to the clerk of court? If it's dismissed by the court due to inactivity, surely they would be less resentful compared to me filing a motion to dismiss.
What would you guys suggest? Also what are the laws about temporarily (but by temporarily being 1 year) leaving the country for such a $10,000 scholarship with an "active" civil case?
I just want to move on with my life and get this out of the way ASAP. Even if I file a motion to dismiss and not the clerks filing it, I'm sure they will accept it (I showed them all the evidence I had to show my review was true and backed up - no way they'd win a defamation case like this).
Also, I paid $200 to hire a jury. Any possibility of getting that back? O_o this frivolous case has cost me so much money and time, ugh
THANK YOU ahead of time for the suggestions!"
PS -- They have NOT even filed a pretrial statement!

