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i am so angry
I can feel it in my stomach. I finished another report this morning and sent it off to the legal department to file with the court. I sent them the report in Word and a PDF of the last page with my signature. The lawyer I sent it to has emailed me back asking me to send her a signed hard copy so that she can file that with the court. We exchanged a few emails, with me asking her why, and her saying it's the rules. I wrote her a sarcastic email but decided not to send it. I telephoned her instead. I told her that I had never had to do this before, and it just created more work for me. She insisted that she had to file the original document. I reminded her that we lived in an electronic age, and asked her to tell me which copy of my Word document was the original (that wasn't patronising at all). I told her that faxed documents were acceptable to the court. She just wouldn't have. In the end, I told her that I wasn't sending her anymore and that she should just file the report as it is. She told me that she has emailed my manager, and no doubt sent a letter in the post too, to complain about me.
I hate pedantic lawyers. We seem to have a lot of them where I work. I think they forget that we are not here to service them, but rather they are there to service us.
I am not an easy person to work with sometimes. I have such a low threshold for fools.
mr mcmuffin on 6 Sep 2004 @ 02:34 PM ✲ Permalink
Comments
Has it got anything to do with needing a hardcopy of your signature, at least, for legal reasons? That would make sense. And then it would have to be attached to the whole report. Other than that, she probably can't be bothered to print it herself.
Posted by: David (TEFL Smiler) | 6 Sep 2004 16:21:21
Yeah, I think she was trying to argue something like that, but I do these things all the time and never been asked for a hard copy before. Faxed documents are acceptable to the court, so why not a faxed PDF. I have a sneaking suspicion that she didn't know what a PDF was, or how to open it. The level of computer literacy where I work is appalling, even though we use the machines all the time. What's worse is that they (the illiterate) seem to think there is some value in not being able to do what most children can manage with their eyes shut. The truth is this particular lawyer is a bit of a panicky moron, who tries her hardest never to give any advice. This is probably the only bit of her job that she feels she is in control of! I guess I am still a little bit angry. I am a bad person.
Posted by: mr mcmuffin | 6 Sep 2004 16:32:31
I work in a CT probate court where we are required to have a hard copy with original signatures on file. An original will, for example,is the one the deceased person signed, and has their initials on the separate pages.
The judge always asks for a hard copy (with original signature) of any document, to be mailed or hand delivered, even if they fax it to us because time is short. Even if the document will not be recorded as part of the public file.
The question is, how can the court distinguish between the document you send and one that may be fake?
What if a co-worker wanted to get you in trouble and opened up a document and changed it and emailed it?
What if you covered an error by claiming that had happened?
Posted by: p. | 6 Sep 2004 16:39:47
That's all fine, but she could just have printed the documents off and sent them to court. She didn't need me to duplicate the work, all the while pretending that I was sending her an original document. My signature was on a PDF, and very few people, and none who care enough, know how to alter that where I work.
Posted by: mr mcmuffin | 6 Sep 2004 16:46:18
Also, I work in a slighty different arena. I am not dead. I will give evidence at some point in the proceedings.
I am still angry.
Posted by: mr mcmuffin | 6 Sep 2004 16:49:31
What, lawyers pedantic ? wot wiv all that educashun and all.
Try working with my lot. I've come home tonight in a mood to kill, I hope it doesn't last until morn, or else I probably will
ee up, I'm a poet and I don't know it. KP
Posted by: keith Povall | 6 Sep 2004 19:17:39
Another comment - computer literacy amongs people "like that".
the other day, a so called high powered engineer in a large company sent me one e mail with 16 megabytes of assorted docs, word, PDF and excel, the latter of which was A3 format.
N'er a word about the size of the mail, the A3 element etc. I responded witht he question whether he was cognisent of the Johari window and was alluding to unconscious incompetence. h has yet to reply. Luddite !
Posted by: keith Povall | 6 Sep 2004 19:23:22
A fews years ago when I was in court for one of my divorce proceedings, something was amiss with the paperwork from my ex husbands' attorney--it seems that paperwork with a signature was missing. The attorney made a few sputtering remarks about the mail, blah blah blah.
Suddenly, the judge held up his hand and stopped her in mid sentence, looked her dead in the eye and said:
"Miz Rollingford...you do have my fax number, do you not? These items could have been faxed to the court last week, thereby you would have been better prepared to come to court today."
Anything to stall proceedings....
Posted by: Retro Girl | 6 Sep 2004 23:35:45
Uh, a meek and mild lawyer here - all the courts in the U.S., that I know of, require an original signature on any document that is filed. Sometimes they'll take a fax on something like a stipulation where at least one of the sigs is original.
So please, don't shoot the lawyers. We really are just rule enforcers. Pedantic, I suppose.
Posted by: Loretta | 7 Sep 2004 01:53:46
Here's one of my favorite sayings:
I don't have an anger problem. I have a stupidity problem.
Posted by: Lena | 7 Sep 2004 08:24:06
