Today we had a consent to dismiss an action that we were trying to file not accepted because the clerk did not like the fact that she signed her initials on behalf of her lawyer that she worked for and did not make it clear her position. Here is what happened… The consent was signed by 2 lawyers each acting for their respective clients. The one lawyers signature was signed by his secretary and then she put ” per DS” which were her initials. This we have all seen before and do every day. What the clerk did not like was that her name was not spelled in full and her position was not mentioned. The clerk wanted us to have her position mentioned like this ” Authorized agent for…”

I must say this is a first time I have come across this, but then again, we are at times at the mercy of the individual clerks and how they may interpret the rules, and or pick up on things that other jurisdictions may not follow that each court house likes to do.

We are only the bearers of the bad news and what the individual clerks want to see, and can only present this to you the client to follow up on for future situations that may arise like this and what you can do to make sure it does not happen again.