Washington, United States

Lawyers for Twitter and Elon Musk squared off for the first time in court on Tuesday (July 19). According to a judge in the eastern US state of Delaware, social media giant Twitter can fast-track its lawsuit against Musk over his cancelled buyout. 

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The trial will take place in October over whether or not the Tesla chief can be forced to complete his $44 billion deal to buy the social network. 

On Tuesday, the Delaware judge ruled against the Musk lawyer's appeal for a February trial. The judge ordered for a month much closer to Twitter's request for September, but did not specify a date. 

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Twitter lawyer William Savitt argued: "We urge the court to enter a prompt schedule and give multiple grounds for that." 

Savitt noted that "the continued uncertainty caused by Musk's purported termination inflicts harm on Twitter every day, every hour of every day." 

The tech company had said that in case Musk is ordered to close the deal it could still take months of additional litigation to close the debt financing, which expires in April. Twitter had asked the judge to reject Musk's proposal to hold the trial in February. 

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All of this started when Musk sent a letter to Twitter saying he was pulling out of the controversial deal he made in April to buy the platform for $54.20 per share, or $44 billion in total. 

The San Francisco-based company had argued that no financial damages could repair the damage Musk caused after he said he would not complete the deal. 

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