Whoops! Fixing Mistakes In The Practice Of Law

Feel free to reference this handy-dandy how-to guide the next time you screw anything up.

One of the dark and dirty secrets about practicing law is that attorneys sometimes make mistakes. That’s because, as you may be surprised to learn, there is a human being lurking inside of each of us. Overturned cases get cited as good authority, numbers get transposed, and that one snarky email you knew you shouldn’t have sent (but were just too irritated to hold back) accidentally gets forwarded. It’s tough to admit that we aren’t infallible, because our job is to solve our clients’ problems, and they pay us a lot of money to do so that could be more enjoyably spent on things like burritos or cat yoga.

Fortunately, based on many years of personal experience, I have all the answers regarding what to do when you screw up. I suggest referencing this how-to guide the next time you mail a notice to the incorrect address or forget to pay a filing fee.

Step One: Panic
Don’t fight your natural instinct to freak out. After all, this is a rare opportunity for those practitioners who lack souls to feel any sort of emotion. Once you have survived that first cold wave of dread, locate your office building’s emergency stairwell and curl up on a step while calling your mother, who will remind you that somebody loves you even though you forgot to confirm a hearing date. If your office building is adjacent to any green space and you have ready access to a shovel, dig a hole to crawl into and wallow for a bit.

Step Two: Assign Blame
Nothing cements a good working relationship like throwing someone under the bus. Do your research to figure out whether there is any available argument whatsoever that someone else is at fault for what happened. Then sidle up to everyone in the office to complain under your breath about that person’s incompetence. Everyone appreciates and respects a finger-pointing gossip.

Step Three: Procrastinate
Whatever happened probably makes you feel awful, so after that initial moment of terror (see Step One above), it is best not to think about your mistake as long as possible. I call this tactic Mindful Denial. After all, there’s probably a 2.6 percent chance that everything is going to just blow over while you are hiding from reality under your desk.

Step Four: Delegate
I don’t know about you, but I joined a law firm with the expectation that if things get tough, I will have co-workers who can clean up my messes while I run around handing out expletives like Jolly Ranchers on Halloween. If you are a solo practitioner, now is a good time to hire a new staff member or attorney to deal with whatever you’ve stepped in. Don’t forget to express your gratitude for any assistance with a thank-you email that took you three seconds to write featuring a smiley face emoji.

Step Five: Find a New Career
Clearly you are not cut out to be a lawyer, because you are the one attorney on the planet who is not perfect, aside from that one opposing counsel who seems to think court deadlines are only gentle suggestions. Now’s the time to think about living out that childhood dream of being a sock model. Don’t worry about your student loans — that’s a problem that can probably be solved with Mindful Denial for at least a few weeks until you get a toehold in the hosiery industry.

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All bitter sarcasm aside, however, it’s important for lawyers to realize that nobody is flawless and making mistakes is a just a hazard of a job that is as complicated as the one we do, especially when we are new to the practice. Just think of each mistake as a learning experience with a damn near guaranteed zero recidivism rate, especially if you did something that opposing counsel can fixate upon.

And take comfort in knowing that the longer you practice, the fewer mistakes you make — and the less panicked you feel when someone points out an error. That’s because by that point, you know that what happened is probably not the end of the world, especially now that we know climate change is pretty much going to kill us all.

In closing, here’s some other input that might be slightly more effective than my five-step plan above:

• Avoid making mistakes. For instances, read the applicable court rules. Just think of them as an evil set of words designed to humiliate you. Don’t let them.

• Instead of dwelling on what happened and why, focus on the solution. I once decided after the discovery deadline passed that I wanted to perform a site inspection. The defendant wanted to delay a deposition. I got my site inspection by agreeing to postpone the deposition.

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• Don’t put off trying to find a solution to the problem. If anything, you can relieve stress by at least getting a handle on the magnitude of your screw-up — it might not be that big a deal as it first seems — and you might just find an easy fix (or realize that you didn’t even mess up after all).

• Try to fix the problem on your own if you can do so efficiently. If you feel like you are in over your head, talk to some more experienced people in your office or your networking circle. There’s a good chance someone has dealt with a similar issue in the past. Plus, he or she probably has some anecdotes to share about things they’ve done in the past that are even more stupid than whatever mistake you just made, so you can feel less foolish and perhaps even a bit superior.

• Notify your supervisors if you have any, so they can make a decision about whether to report the issue to the insurance carrier. Also work with them to determine how (and sometimes, more importantly, when) to explain the situation to a client. Often an apparent crisis gets resolved quickly (or never becomes a crisis at all), and at that point you can present both the problem and the resolution to the client in the same communication. Or you can figure out a way to package the circumstances in a more positive light. (“We forgot the confirm the hearing, but now that judge who seems to favor plaintiffs won’t be hearing the motion.”)

• Remember that whatever mistake you made is very unlikely to be fatal to a case or to your career. Opposing attorneys love to threaten CR 11 motions and wave your mistakes around like a personal-shame flag, but courts and clients — and opposing attorneys who don’t suck, who do in fact exist — generally understand that stuff happens. And if you can’t accept the fact that sometimes you are going to screw up when practicing law, just remember that your feet look good in argyle. And your mom loves you no matter what.


Allison Peryea is a shareholder attorney at Leahy Fjelstad Peryea, a boutique law firm in downtown Seattle that primarily serves community association clients. Her practice focuses on covenant enforcement and dispute resolution. She is a longtime humor writer with a background in journalism and cat ownership. You can reach her by email at Allison.Peryea@leahyps.com.