This happened twice in one month: Two different paralegals sent important documents by attaching a pdf file to the end of a long email chain on a different topic. So the subject line had nothing to do with the document.
The first time, I was corresponding with a paralegal about what time the sellers could come by the office and sign. The subject line was "Sellers signing Friday." After a pause, a response email came and the paralegal asked, "How does it look?" The question didn't make a lot of sense, but I assumed she mean the time we had agreed on. I replied, "It's fine."
A couple of hours later I emailed her to ask when I could expect the Closing Documents. "I already sent them to you," she said. "You said they looked fine." I had no clue that there was a file attached at the bottom of a chain of emails about "Sellers Signing Friday."
The second time my buyer was waiting for a long-delayed survey. She was told she would have it Monday, but when I called her Tuesday evening, she hadn't received it. Annoyed, I called the paralegal the next morning. "I sent it to her on Monday!" she said. "Forward it to me, then," I told her. "I'll make sure she gets it."
When she forwarded me the email she had sent to my client, the subject line was "Homeowners insurance" and the survey was tacked to the bottom. I changed the subject line to "Survey attached" and sent it to my client with an explanation. "I saw the email," she said, "but I thought it was a duplicate and deleted it."
Here's a rule for email correspondence: Make the subject line match the content. If there's an attachment, say so! Reference the attachment either in the subject line or in the first line of the email. Nobody scrolls down just to case something might be there!
There are times when it's good to be subtle. Emailing important documents is not one of those times.
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