I was hoping to discover something more elegant but I ran out of time so I went with the reliable BEGIN TRY/BEGIN CATCH method that I've always used. Thank you...

Thank you very much. It works beautifully.

RBarry Young noticed it. My server is on SQL Server 2000 even though I'm using the tools from SQL Server 2008 Express to access it. Apparently those commands...

Thank you, Grasshopper. It's a great start and very appreciated. Sadly only half of it works. I've contacted the lead DBA to find out why the EXCEPT...