At a court hearing today, we’ll find out how Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Gail Killefer and the Church of Scientology react to Valerie Haney nominating actress Elisabeth Moss to be an arbitrator in her lawsuit.
We broke that news Friday evening, but we must apologize for such a brief and hasty dispatch. At the time we were sitting at a bar in the wilds of northern New Jersey after a hilly day on a bicycle and with no more journalistic resources than the smartphone we happened to have with us.
Since then, we’ve learned a little more about what happened that day, and why this morning should feature an interesting showdown in court.
We know this whole “religious arbitration” situation is extremely confusing for many people, and we will try, once again, to explain in basic terms what is going on. In June 2019 Valerie sued the Church of Scientology over the abuses she alleged she had endured. She said she had been held against her will as a Sea Org employee at Scientology’s secretive “Int Base” east of Los Angeles, and that she had escaped from the base by hiding in the trunk of a car. She then went to work for Leah Remini as her assistant for several years, and during that time she alleges that she was harassed, stalked, and libeled by Scientology. (Valerie continues her work in the entertainment industry, but she’s now working for another Hollywood producer.)
Scientology derailed Valerie’s lawsuit when it filed a successful motion arguing that a contract Valerie signed when she formally left the church obliged her to take any grievances to Scientology’s own brand of “religious arbitration” and not to a court of law. (Scientologists are repeatedly asked to sign contracts containing similar arbitration clauses whenever they receive a service in the church.) Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Richard Burdge granted Scientology’s motion, denying Valerie a right to trial. A contract is a contract, he ruled, and Valerie would have to take her case to Scientology’s own brand of internal justice.
That was more than two years ago. In that time, Valerie has been filing motions and petitions trying to get Burdge’s order overturned, to no avail. So now, under a new judge, Judge Gail Killefer, Valerie is under pressure to get the arbitration process going or risk having the lawsuit dismissed outright.
Now, it’s very important to understand that Scientology’s “arbitration” is nothing like the kind of independent arbitration that you might have gone through if you ever had to settle a claim with a doctor or a roofer or an employer. In that sort of arbitration, a retired judge or other person is selected by both sides to be the arbitrator, and that person listens to evidence on both sides and renders a verdict from a neutral position. Handling things this way saves the court system a lot of time and money, and that’s why judges like Judge Burdge are so anxious to divert cases to arbitration in order to lighten their caseload.
Scientology’s arbitration is completely different. First of all, founder L. Ron Hubbard never described rules for arbitration, and Scientology is built on the premise that everything must come from Hubbard, who is known as “Source.” So under Hubbard’s successor, David Miscavige, a jackleg set of procedures has been cobbled together from the rules for Scientology “committees of evidence,” which is something like a court martial. (Hubbard was a Navy man in WW2.) Adapting those “CommEv” rules, Scientology arbitration takes place with a panel of three arbitrators, who must all be members in good standing.
This has been one of the chief objections raised by former Scientologists suing the church. They know that simply by filing a lawsuit they will be declared “Suppressive Persons,” which is Scientology’s way of labeling someone an enemy of the church. There’s no way, these former members say, that a panel of three Scientologists in good standing would ever hear a case fairly that involves an “SP.”
And how to select that panel of three arbitrators? Scientology proposes that each side selects one arbitrator, and then those two arbitrators select a third.
At court on Friday Valerie’s attorneys submitted a letter signed by Valerie formally asking Scientology’s “International Justice Chief” Mike Ellis to begin the arbitration process, and challenging him about these problems with the rules (that Hubbard hadn’t written any, for example), and also that she denied that any of her claims were “ecclesiastical” in nature.
We’re told that Valerie’s attorneys came under some heat, however, that the letter didn’t include a proposal from Valerie about who she was nominating as an arbitrator. So they hastily added Elisabeth Moss to the letter and resubmitted it. (And then had to submit it again after making the very common mistake of spelling Moss’s first name with a “z.”)
Judge Killefer continued the hearing to today, and so we’ll find out what she and Scientology think about that cheeky move by Valerie’s attorneys.
We want to point out some of the things we learned in the only previous example of a lawsuit resulting in Scientology arbitration. In that case, filed by Luis and Rocio Garcia in 2013 and forced to arbitration in 2015, the choosing of arbitrators turned out to be a complete mess.
The Garcias, like Valerie, made some cheeky suggestions about who their choice for arbitrator might be. But Scientology responded that the person named must not only be a member in good standing, but they must also be available and willing. So the church simply said that the people the Garcias had suggested just weren’t available. (And we assume they’ll do the same in the case of Moss.)
In the Garcia case, this back and forth over possible arbitrators dragged on for more than a year. There was the obvious problem, for example, about how “SPs” like the Garcias were even supposed to reach out to current Scientologists in good standing in order to ask them to serve as arbitrators. By Scientology’s own policy, members in good standing are required to reject any communication with SPs, so how were the Garcias supposed to ask someone to be an arbitrator? This was never really cleared up in that case.
Ultimately, the judge in their case, Tampa federal Judge James Whittemore, became so frustrated he decided to step in and select the arbitrators himself.
What then ensued at the actual arbitration proceeding in Los Angeles in 2017 was an absolute farce, Luis said. He and his wife were denied representation by counsel, they were not allowed to bring a recording device, no transcript was kept, and 90 percent of the evidence they brought was not allowed by the IJC. Ultimately, the panel awarded them about $18,000 of the hundreds of thousands they believed they had lost in fraud. (The Garcias refused to take the award.)
Judge Whittemore then dismissed complaints from the Garcias about what had happened and accepted the arbitration result, and after a three-year appeal, the Eleventh Circuit upheld it.
What we learned from that process is that once Judge Whittemore had granted the arbitration motion, Scientology was fully in control. It set the rules, it set the conditions, and Judge Whittemore believed that he couldn’t interfere without trampling on Scientology’s “religious rights.”
Valerie is in a similar situation. She and her attorneys can troll Scientology and it will be entertaining. But we think it’s important to keep in mind that the court system has decided it can’t interfere and Scientology gets to set all the rules and conditions.
It’s not a funny situation at all.
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Source Code: Actual things founder L. Ron Hubbard said on this date in history
Avast, Ye Mateys: Snapshots from Scientology’s years at sea
Overheard in the Freezone: Indie Hubbardism, one thought at a time
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Valerie and her lawyers are cheeky, very happily cheeky. I know that Mike Ellis will reject Moss as an 'arbitrator', but the fight to find a willing clam to be chosen by Valerie is just starting. Until some court much higher on the food chain finds that $cieno 'arbitration' is unconscionable, the Clampire will keep using this scheme to grind down anyone forced into their 'arbitration'.
What's next? Ask Krustie Ally? How about Danny Masterson? That would be hilarious and would call attention to the whole stinking process. Maybe even the LA Times would notice and do a story on it. But even better, the tabloids would have a wonderful time with it.
Stay strong Valerie, the marathon is still in its early stages.
Valerie can always write a book, that would sell for sure, all she's been through.
Arbitration, if lost, then do her book and tell all.