A DeKalb County judge continued a $100,000-plus defamation lawsuit against a Geneva blogger Thursday, despite an objection that the plaintiff’s attorney missed a filing deadline.

The case is being heard in DeKalb County because the plaintiff is Kane County Circuit Judge Michael Noland, who is suing Jeff Ward, alleging that Ward defamed him by falsely claiming in a Jan. 31, 2025, online blog post that the judge cheats on his wife.

Ward, who is representing himself, objected to a late response by Noland’s attorney Michael Scotti.

Scotti admitted his office missed the date the judge set for filing a response.

“I got married last month. And so I overlooked it,” Scotti said. “I apologize for that.”

Ward did not accept that.

“If the representative of a sitting judge can’t follow the schedule ... why should the rest of us bother?” Ward said.

Allowing Scotti to file after the date the judge set would be prejudicial and undermine the court’s scheduling order, Ward argued.

Scotti disagreed.

“I inadvertently omitted to put the briefing schedule in our calendar. That error was compounded by being preoccupied by the Thanksgiving holiday and my getting married. I was ready to argue the motion,” Scotti said. “I would put my arguments in writing and present them to the court, so that we could have a ruling on the merits. There’s no prejudice to any party.”

Chief Judge Bradley Waller said he understood Ward’s position, but cited Supreme Court 183, which “gives the court broad discretion to extend timeframes for the filing of pleadings or the doing of any act which is required by the rules to be done within a certain time.”

“I think I would be remiss, Mr. Ward,” Waller said, about granting Scotti an extension. “I would do the same for you if the shoe was on the other foot.”

Outside of who didn’t file what when, the real issue is a motion by Ward asking the judge to revisit his approval of alternative methods to serve him a summons.

Waller gave Ward until Feb. 4 to file a motion and Feb. 5 to appear in court to argue it.

Ward previously said he has not answered his door since 1983, does not accept registered mail and rejected the alternative method of service via taping the notice to his front door.

“We’re rehashing the same arguments,” Scotti objected. “He made a motion to quash the summons, and that was denied. ... This is a lot of evasive action and we’re not even on the merits, yet.”

Scotti said the last time they appeared before Waller, the judge had ordered Ward to answer the complaint – which he still has not done.

“I did file a response,” Ward said.

“And we will take all that up on Feb. 5,” Waller said, ending the back-and-forth.

The judge also apologized for missing a scheduled appearance in December’s court call because he was coming off a second hip replacement surgery.