When I signed the contract to sell my condo last July, the closing was scheduled to occur within 50 days, i.e., ~Sept 4 (an extension from the 30 days in the offer, due to back up in FHA loans), a change in the date required the signatures of all parties. I wasn’t notified that the closing wouldn’t occur on time—let alone asked for my signature.  I must have heard that the closing would be "soon" a half dozen time, beginning in mid-September. 

The closing occured on Oct 22, 1 day short of 7 weeks past the original date.  (Note: the buyers were ready to close on time.)
 
When I met with the realtor and lawyer to sign papers on October 21, the delay in the closing was attributed to problems associated with my home equity account.  As the lawyer explained, he needed to ensure that my interests were protected. He totally ignored 2 points I had mentioned in a recent email that I thought were more relevant, i.e.,  
 
·          in my first conversation with the lawyer after the contract was signed in July, he said that it would take 2 weeks to get the payoff figures, adding “I’ll get right on that.”  In mid-September—a couple of weeks past the original closing date—he said he needed a release from me to get the final payoff figures.
 
·          the request for info regarding the home equity account came even later.  (Whatever issues he had with that account he was able to work out in about a week.) 
 
In short, it seems to me that the delay in the closing was his doing, i.e., directly tied to his failure to request the account info until after the date of the scheduled closing.

Since October I’ve been trying to get ahead of the falling dominoes triggered by the delay. Briefly, I was out of work for those 7 weeks (I work from home and I had terminated my internet connection in anticipation of moving). I had told clients I would be back at work the week of Sept 14. Instead, it was almost Thanksgiving by the time I was up and running--the start of the holiday season when it's difficult to keep existing projects on track.  No one takes on new work.  I'm struggling financially as a direct result of being out of work for those 7 weeks and due to the delay in getting back up to speed. 

I'm considering a small claims court case, but I don't want to waste any more time on this issue if the closing date and/or clause regarding the need for signatures isn't taken seriously by people in the business or legal system (as opposed to those of us who sign the contract.)