Nice Explanation of Excusable Neglect

There is nothing quite like the horror of realizing that a deadline has been missed. As the heart pounds at the thought of notifying client and carrier, the mind should shift to damage control. Was this a deadline which could be extended after the fact based on excusable neglect? O'Brien v. Harnett, Adv. No. 11-5010 (Bankr. W.D. Tex. 1/19/12), which can be found here, is a nice addition to the jurisprudence of excusable neglect.

The point is that the notion of "excusable neglect" of necessity presumes that someone has made a mistake, someone has been careless, someone has been negligent. It is no answer, then, to a request for mercy that the party making the request should not have made the mistake. Hindsight always affords the clarity that confirms that, had the person simply been paying strict attention, no mistake would have been made. The reality is that human beings often are not paying strict attention all the time. Not even lawyers.

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Of course it was a mistake for counsel not to then go back to the docket to confirm the entry of the order itself. Hindsight, as we have seen, makes us all perfect (or seem that we should have been). But his secretary was out of the office, it was the week between Christmas and New Years, and thus counsel, as most people in that time period tend to be, was more distracted than usual. (emphasis added).

Opinion, p. 4.

This opinion is not only a handy resource to use in making pleas for mercy in the case of inadvertently missed deadlines, but is also a good commentary on human nature. Anyone can be perfect in hindsight. However, the reality is that we don't always pay attention as well as we could and that condition is magnified during the holidays. Thank you, Judge Clark, for saying it.

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