Be glad you aren't Rod McClelland today. Be even more glad you weren't him one nerve-wracking weekend in September of 2008, at the conclusion of which he was supposed to file an opposition to a summary judgment motion in a client's case against PG&E.
In the Fifth District's words, McClelland "went 'all in' on a bed bet." He waited til the last minute, then assigned the opposition to a paralegal. On learning that the paralegal had left for a vacation with a scheme to file it on time but "without his having seen it," McClelland "hoped for a miracle" when, the court said, he should have sought an extension.
The miracle didn't materialize: The paralegal's home computer crashed the night before her trip. So she took the file on an Alaskan cruise, leaving her boss a voicemail explaining her plan to email the completed brief and exhibits from the ship to an attorney service for filing on the due date.
Somehow, not everything arrived at the court on time -- though the paralegal apparently did persuade a Canadian magistrate's office to let her use their equipment to email the opposition and exhibits to defense counsel.
The justices turned down McClelland's request for relief: "He gambled and lost."
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