A status conference to determine the direction of a lawsuit naming the county weekly newspaper and reporter as defendants is set for next week in Livingston County.

Attorneys for plaintiff Marcus Yono and the Leelanau Enterprise will meet at 3 p.m., next Thursday, Sept. 13 for a “status conference” requested by attorney Mark G. Clark from Traverse Legal. He represents the Enterprise and Carlson.

Clark hopes to demonstrate the lack of progress in the lawsuit filed this spring over the alleged defamation of the developer by the Enterprise, and reporter Eric Carlson.

“We’re hoping to get (the lawsuit) going one way or another,” Clark said. “It’s an effort to get the court to see that nothing has transpired in the case.”

On July 3, a Circuit Court Judge in Livingston County ordered a change of venue to Leelanau County. That would move court proceedings from the Yono’s home of Livingston County to Leelanau, where the newspaper is located and Enterprise owners Alan and Debra Campbell and reporter Carlson live.

However, attorneys for the developer filed a motion at mid-July to have the change of venue “reconsidered.” Yono’s attorneys argued that the case against the Leelanau Enterprise should be tried in Livingston County because the actual “damages” sustained by the developer as a result of newspaper articles printed occurred in Livingston County, where the developer does most of his business.

The lawsuit alleges that information about Yono published in the newspaper in February and March 2007 was defamatory. The articles detailed several earlier lawsuits against the developer in Leelanau County, a criminal investigation involving the development, unpaid taxes on the Bay View property in Suttons Bay and numerous construction liens on the property.

Calls to Roger L. Myers, Yono’s attorney, were not returned this week.