Lawyers sometimes make mistakes. After all, they’re only human. Like they might sign a complaint to start a lawsuit that really shouldn’t be started yet.
To an employer under the ADA, an employee must first file a complaint with the EEOC. Only after the EEOC review the complaint, and gives permission to start a lawsuit, may one be commenced. The attorney in today’s civil procedure case missed that step, signing his name to a complaint over a matter that hadn’t yet been submitted to the EEOC. The attorney caught the mistake, but not before the employer did too and moved for the case to be dismissed and the attorney punished. The court didn’t dismiss the case, letting the attorney correct the mistake, but it did admonish him for it.
Now, for some reason, the editor of the case book elected to leave the attorney’s name in the case. Why? I don’t know. It doesn’t serve any purpose other than to introduce the attorney new classes of law students by his mistake. It would have been easy enough to edit out the name and let him rest in peace. No one probably would have noticed, and anyone eager enough could have always looked up the unedited case. Instead, his name will live on for at least this edition, and he will always be remembered for his mistake.
Mixed-up Confusion 