so today, under incredible time pressure to file documents with the court before a deadline, the following happened to me:

software somehow 'disappeared' the document entirely - not even in the recycle bin
after conferring with the tech guy, it became apparent the doc was gone. totally. beyond retrieval. so, i re-created the document.

then, the copier jammed - preventing copies of the document from being made for all parties concerned.
so, i unjammed it after a (frustrating) while

then because time was running short and the 4:30 p.m. court closing had passed i thought heck, why not fax-file the motion papers? i have until 5:00 p.m. but noooo, the fax machine reached its memory capacity and jammed, preventing transmission
so, i sprinted the document over to the courthouse and dropped it into the filing slot manually, hoping for the best because sometimes they file things on monday but date-stamp them for friday.

at long last, the copies were made and i was racing to beat the post office pick-up time but then the postage meter jammed too, disallowing the application of postage

unjammed that too, and sprinted to the nearest 6:00 p.m. pick-up place.

so my question is - can office equipment be possessed by demons from hell? if so should i perform an exorcism or should i pander to the demons by leaving them offerings of incense and food?
any advice is appreciated
[This message was edited Fri May 7 17:11:51 2004 by XxAxX]

and yes, i do know that someday i will look back and think of this as 'funny'. or maybe i'll see me on a candid camera episode?

Lawyers can be assholes. Are you sure the other side didn't have some counsels hiding in each of the offending items? Purposefully jamming the copier etc. ?

I hate it when office equipment acts up on me, it really makes me mad. The copier where I work jams up a lot, and always in the same place. Even after all the paper is cleared out, there is still an error message on the screen. Sometimes I need to open and close every single drawer and latch in order to get the error message to clear.

3bogs said:

Co-sign to that. I used to work with lawyers about 12 years ago, and I didn't like it at all, big mistake. I've been much happier since I got out of the legal field.

3bogs said:

:hmmm: possible. possible indeed. maybe i'll make some angry phonecalls on monday, accuse them all of sabotaging the effort!

XxAxX said:

Your client isn't Charles Manson, is it?

psychodelicide said:

yep. it did that i think i went wrong when i muttered something to the effect that it shouldn't be a b&tch, and all the other equipment heard me, took offense, and went on strike

psychodelicide said:

you know i've been feeling that way too. the whole field is fraught with adversity, it's colored my thinking entirely so that i automatically evaluate situations with that perspective, even in my personal life. i'm actually considering becoming an abstractor, doing title searches or soemthing. nice, quiet job with a mortgage company or something. ..

I have a habit of cussing at office equipment too. Just recently, my computer was running super slow, so I hit the enter button and yelled out, "C'mon, asshole!" A co-worker heard me say that, he started cracking up laughing.

NCC2012 said:

no, the client is a nice entity. don't think we can blame this on charles & co. unLESS one of charles' minions is working in the ofice equipment field. m... note to self. monday morning angry phonecall to the copy repair guy, accuse him of being in league with the devil

XxAxX said:

Go for it, it's never too late to make a change.

psychodelicide said:

i can usually maintain my calm pretty well, unde pressure. but this was really soemthing else. fortunately, the attorney i was working for took me aside after hearing me mutter "i'm in hell?" and told me not to sweat it. but i DO sweat it because i take pride in my work. bah. the good news is NOW it's starting to seem kinda funny. thanks for listening

Back when I worked for IBM, I was working on a piece of equipment that wasn't working properly when the new person had just asked me a question at the same time the equipment screwed up again, and I said aloud "NO, YOU DUMBASS!!" Then I look down at the girl and she was looking at me like "Oh my God, my boss just called me a dumbass!" We laughed about that for months!

That's cool that the attorney told you not to sweat it, since lawyers can be major pains in the butt. No problem listening to what you've got to say, since you listened and gave me good advice (which I did follow) on one of my threads.

psychodelicide said:

yeah, i'm thinking i'd be less stressed out working in a nice shipping and receiving company, or even mopping floors would be a relief. WHY do attorney wait until 4:10 p.m. to finalize their work when the deadline is 4:30? ok, it's partly my fault becauss of the document disappearing. .. but still. i'll never understand these guys, god bless them. they're really nice people, by the way, so it wasn't deliberate or anything

When my office equipment goes bad, and I feel angry, I just stop and ask myself, what would Jesus do?

Attorneys are notorious for waiting until the very last minute for anything to get done (even when they are aware that it needs to be completed way ahead of time).

NCC2012 said:

i am thinking the various office equipments like computers, copiers, postage machines and fax machines have attained self-awareness and take pleasure establishing exactly who is in charge around the place. someday, i think, they will mutiny and take over the world

XxAxX said:

Because they can, and then blame it on someone else.

My wife is a paralegal, so I hear about stuff like that alll the time. Her boss would be lost without her.

doctormcmeekle said:

oh, me too. of course. then i haul off and give the offending machine a good swift kick with my foot. is that wrong?

NCC2012 said:

It's an old trick which puts pressure on the other side. Particularly on Friday afternoons. Forces them to stay on Friday evening / work weekends when it's inconvenient - maybe they'll make mistakes, etc. Everyone does it.

XxAxX said:

Why don't you ask Jesus?

NCC2012 said:

yes i know they do and no amount of reason can reach them on this point. once i had an attorney actually argue that waiting until the last minute actually helped the cause insofar as the final product came out better under pressure

i really do like the guys i'm working for - they're both really cool, btw. i'm just venting i guess

XxAxX said:

Meshbesher & Spence?

3bogs said:

yep. i've heard this too. it's not a hugely important motion, fortunately, and also fortunately my boss said it was no big deal even if the court files it late. equally fortunately, the aprtiesd were served timely, which is what really counts. still, though, it's a matter of pride for us assistant types to be efficient.

NCC2012 said:

NO not personal injury! i've done that and i can't tell you how awful it is reviewing medical records and learning allll about people's health issues, then meeting with them and trying to forget it all, the alcoholism, the spousal battery, the bulimia, etc. very tragic in some cases, because when we requst the med. recs. the recs aren't limited to just the issue at hand. we get ALL their medical records, dating back to whenever, and establish their history from there. i didn't last long at personal injury!

doctormcmeekle said:

well, i did in fact pray a bit at first but that didn't work. maybe jesus was on break?

XxAxX said:

Heheh...they were the only pair I could think of at the moment.

I know how the medical records go. I go through those every single day at work (records dept at Mayo Clinic in Rochester). Some of the stuff is downright funny, though.

My wife is in family law and likes it a lot. I'd be screwed if we ever ended up getting divorced, though.

XxAxX said:

Maybe he was having problems with the prayer-retrieval machine at his office.