Lawyer Misses Court Date Thanks To Spam Filter

from the whooooops dept

We’ve all heard stories about people missing important emails thanks to spam filters, but what’s the most important email that you lost (or, rather, almost lost) thanks to such a filter? Apparently, a lawyer who was defending a client in a wrongful death lawsuit would probably say it was the email telling him when he needed to be in court. Instead of being in court, he went on vacation. The judge in the case was looking into sanctions against the lawyer — including dismissing the case. However, after being shown that the email was, indeed, caught in a spam filter, the judge excused the absence. Who thinks “my spam filter ate it” is going to become a much more common excuse for avoiding anything setup via email?


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Comments on “Lawyer Misses Court Date Thanks To Spam Filter”

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5 Comments
Bill Eccles says:

No Subject Given

Who thinks E-mail is a viable source of dependable (read “receipt guaranteed”) communications?

You’re wrong.

Who thinks that the USPS, First Class Mail, is a viable source of dependable communications?

You’re wrong, too.

In fact, unless you speak to the person on the phone, or send them a message with return receipt requested, you haven’t guaranteed that your message will be received.

The USAF learned that the hard way a few years back when SecState Ron Brown’s plane crashed as a result of an E-mailing of critical information. The net result? Orders that reinforced that the USAF’s message system is the only acceptable method of communicating critical information.

Now, if the lawyer said, “Sure, E-mail me, I read my E-mail,” then he’s certainly at fault, and not understanding the technology’s limitations is his fault, too. Though I’m sure if he’s clever enough, he could shift liability to his ISP for not explaining it to him.

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