(NewsNation) — Twitter Inc.’s request to expedite its trial in a lawsuit against billionaire Elon Musk will be heard July 19, Delaware Chancery Court Chief Judge Kathaleen St. J. McCormick said in a letter Thursday.
Twitter’s attorneys claim they only need four days to convince McCormick Musk needs to honor his commitment, although legal experts predict a much longer and more arduous dispute.
Should Twitter’s legal team win that quickly, it would not only give the judge enough time to make a ruling but also provide the Delaware Supreme Court enough time to review it before the Oct. 24 closing date for the transaction, which would be seen as a win for the social media conglomerate.
Twitter sued Elon Musk on Tuesday for violating the $44 billion deal to buy the social media platform and asked a Delaware court to order him to complete the merger at the agreed-upon $54.20 per Twitter share, according to a court filing.
The Tesla CEO had previously threatened to walk away from the deal if the company couldn’t show that less than 5% of its daily active users are automated spam accounts, which, according to Musk’s attorneys, the company has failed to submit.
McCormick on Wednesday was assigned the Twitter lawsuit, which promises to be one of the biggest legal showdowns in years.
“She already has a track record of not putting up with some of the worst behavior that we see in these areas when people want to get out of deals,” said Adam Badawi, a law professor who specializes in corporate governance at the University of California, Berkeley. “She is a serious, no-nonsense judge.”
In contrast to Musk’s brash and volatile behavior, McCormick is known as soft-spoken, approachable and amiable — but a person who also stands her ground. She advocates respect among litigants and integrity at legal conferences.
Reuters contributed to this story.