On August 25, 2006 Tim Dick as President of Ligonier Ministries filed a lawsuit against Frank Vance in the Seminole County Florida court. Ligonier Ministries is the ministry of Christian theologian RC Sproul.
Frank Vance has never been legally served or even notified by email that Ligonier Ministries has sued him. He only became aware of the lawsuit by being contacted by Rene Stutzman of the Orlando Sentinel a week after the suit had been filed.
Ligonier filed:
1. Verified Complaint For Damages And Injunctive Relief
2. Ex Parte Motion For Temporary Injunction
On September 20 Ligonier Ministries posted a public statement entitled "Withdrawal Of Legal Complaint" in which Ligonier's "senior management" (Tim Dick and John Duncan) announced that they had "withdrawn the complaint." However it was soon discovered that they hadn't even submitted the necessary paperwork to the court, let alone withdrawn their lawsuit. Finally one week later the court received Ligonier's legal paperwork notifying the court that they were dropping the case:
Notice Of Voluntary Dismissal Without Prejudice.
Take note of the fact that the Dismissal wasn't even prepared until September 25, five days after Ligonier had already announced the case had already been dismissed.
On September 29 the Orlando Sentinel ran another story in which the Reporter interviewed Ligonier's attorney Dan Brodersen. In that interview Mr. Brodersen stated that Ligonier may very well try and sue me again.
Updates on this case will be provided primarily through Frank Vance's blog.