The Sunday wakeup call

This morning felt like one of the many worst days of my life. I woke up to a call from a lawyer asking if he offended me yesterday when I was writing up a case that he filed. He said that he was offended by the fact that someone else was quote about his client's case, and that he had been receiving calls from his friends asking if he was responsible for the case or the guy I quoted.
I apologised, admitted that it was a lapse of judgement, and offered to remedy the situation. If it was other subject of the story, I probably wouldn't care so much. But this felt like I was burning bridges, and not just sources.

It was a headline story. There's no escape from scrutiny.

I suspect that most readers, especially non-lawyers, wouldn't even notice anything wrong with it. It is a decent story. All it needed was substituting that guy's quote with his. But words get around, especially in small communities like the journalists' one or the lawyers' one. My boss told me two weeks ago that it's about quality. Write a story that people remember you for. This feels like one of those stories, and not in a good way.
For the past year, I've been so cautious to the point that journalists would probably see me as meek, and not daring enough.

If I search hard enough for an excuse, it's that when I called the lawyer yesterday, he said nothing that I could possibly quote and he didn't even seem to explain his point of view other than referring me to the court documents. On top of that, the editor's comments somehow influenced how I viewed the whole thing.
I asked him if he thought it'd be okay that I quote the third party lawyer, and he said as long as he is okay with it then it's fine. Little did I think how not okay the lawyer taking charge of the case would be.
In hindsight, I would have called the now-offended lawyer a second time after I heard the quotable comments made by the irrelevant lawyer. But it's too late now.

Recently, I've been hearing about how particular journalists I know piss some people off. If I write something that I believe in, I really don't mind if it pisses people off. But this time, I had no intention to provoke but that's what happened.

This too shall pass, like everything else. But it's a blow to my confidence.