Brain Fart

I am so in need of a brain transplant. I'm too young to be suffering from Alzheimer's. This is confusing and annoying at the same time.

This afternoon I suffered from the most amazing and incredible brain fart I've ever experienced. Ever. And to compound the mental hiccup, I made my gaffe incredibly public.

So I'd been following this court case for a while now, because it relates to my practice. The Third Circuit decision was promising, and I had cited to it before in briefs I had written, but the future viability of the decision was put in limbo when the Supreme Court decided it would accept the matter for resolution. Of course, it also meant that the Court may hand down some very favorable law. In either event, the Court was prepared to announce a rule of law on an issue that was pretty contentious in my field.

Meanwhile, back in the office, my colleague subscribed to an email alert system whereby a national legal research racket provider sent her monthly email summaries of developments in the field. We amended our contract back in June to provide those emails; she suddenly realized she had not been receiving them. So today, she got the matter straightened out, and the research company sent her emails from way back when she first should have been receiving them. She, in turn, forwarded them to me.

So I, like a diligent little person, decide to take a look at these updates to figure out the emerging trends in our field, and whether any recent developments will help my clients. First one I open, lo and behold, mentions the Supreme Court's decision in this case I'd been following. Great!, I thought. The decision was pretty favorable to the position I wanted, so I was happy. So happy, in fact, that I cut and pasted the little blurb into a new email and forwarded it to a listserv for lawyers in this area who practice in the same field as I do.

Only a few minutes later did I come to realize -- through my boss, no less -- that the case which I had just emailed hundreds of lawyers about was decided by the Supreme Court six months ago. In fact, we had already discussed the holding of the case on the listserv. For some reason, I had completely forgotten about this. I looked at the blurb as if it were the first time I had heard about it.

And now hundreds of attorneys who practice in the same field as I do are wondering where the hell I've been for six months.

I've already got a plan: Should anyone ask me what the hell I was thinking, I'm going to say that I sent that email out months ago, and somehow it must have gotten stuck in some internet limbo until just now.

But my office knows the truth, and we're all getting a pretty good laugh out of it. Well, frankly, I think they're enjoying it more than I am. At least I have the gift of laughing at myself.