Nearing 40 years of age, I have learned that most all good things must come to an end. Good places to be, good friends, good lovers, good times, they come and they go. And so it is with careers sometimes too.
A few weeks ago, the company I work for had a company wide meeting of all departments to announce impending lay-offs. And for a variety of reasons, I think I'm for the chop. Technology is to blame. We used to be in and out of the Federal courts all the time, filing cases and retrieving documents and doing all the things that legal messengers do. But now electronic signatures are recognized as legal, so lawyers can electronically file those documents without leaving their office, or having to pay us to do it, so they don't have to leave their office. DAMN YOU INTERWEB! We are already seeing the loss of revenue from this. Anyway, sooner or later this will be the case in all the courts. As I understand it, the reason its not already is because the Feds only recognized certain software programs by which these electronic signatures are generated, and the software costs an ass-load of money. But just like computers and DVD players, the costs will eventually come down and all the lawyers will have it and not just the really big firms. Also, once the lawyers are able to email docs from one firm to another to be signed and returned, that's even more that we won't be doing.
So now, I'm having to think about what I'm going to do after having what I consider to be the be-all-end-all of cool jobs. Yes age and injury are taking their toll -- in the messenger world 40 is old -- and I wouldn't be able to do it a whole lot longer anyway, sooner or later this scenario would have to be played out.
A few weeks ago, the company I work for had a company wide meeting of all departments to announce impending lay-offs. And for a variety of reasons, I think I'm for the chop. Technology is to blame. We used to be in and out of the Federal courts all the time, filing cases and retrieving documents and doing all the things that legal messengers do. But now electronic signatures are recognized as legal, so lawyers can electronically file those documents without leaving their office, or having to pay us to do it, so they don't have to leave their office. DAMN YOU INTERWEB! We are already seeing the loss of revenue from this. Anyway, sooner or later this will be the case in all the courts. As I understand it, the reason its not already is because the Feds only recognized certain software programs by which these electronic signatures are generated, and the software costs an ass-load of money. But just like computers and DVD players, the costs will eventually come down and all the lawyers will have it and not just the really big firms. Also, once the lawyers are able to email docs from one firm to another to be signed and returned, that's even more that we won't be doing.
So now, I'm having to think about what I'm going to do after having what I consider to be the be-all-end-all of cool jobs. Yes age and injury are taking their toll -- in the messenger world 40 is old -- and I wouldn't be able to do it a whole lot longer anyway, sooner or later this scenario would have to be played out.
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