diff --git a/lemur/common/schema.py b/lemur/common/schema.py
index f7f2caf4..c43c8cd3 100644
--- a/lemur/common/schema.py
+++ b/lemur/common/schema.py
@@ -136,7 +136,7 @@ def validate_schema(input_schema, output_schema):
                 resp = f(*args, **kwargs)
             except Exception as e:
                 current_app.logger.exception(e)
-                return dict(message=e.message), 500
+                return dict(message=str(e)), 500
 
             if isinstance(resp, tuple):
                 return resp[0], resp[1]
diff --git a/lemur/common/utils.py b/lemur/common/utils.py
index ec21cc7e..56bb9083 100644
--- a/lemur/common/utils.py
+++ b/lemur/common/utils.py
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@
 
 .. moduleauthor:: Kevin Glisson <kglisson@netflix.com>
 """
+import six
 import sys
 import string
 import random
@@ -36,11 +37,13 @@ def get_psuedo_random_string():
 
 
 def parse_certificate(body):
-    if sys.version_info >= (3, 0):
-        if isinstance(body, bytes):
-            return x509.load_pem_x509_certificate(body, default_backend())
-        return x509.load_pem_x509_certificate(bytes(body, 'utf8'), default_backend())
-    return x509.load_pem_x509_certificate(body.encode('utf-8'), default_backend())
+    if sys.version_info[0] <= 2:
+        return x509.load_pem_x509_certificate(bytes(body), default_backend())
+
+    if isinstance(body, six.string_types):
+        body = body.encode('utf-8')
+
+    return x509.load_pem_x509_certificate(body, default_backend())
 
 
 def is_weekend(date):
diff --git a/lemur/plugins/lemur_verisign/plugin.py b/lemur/plugins/lemur_verisign/plugin.py
index b2ea30bc..2aa2690a 100644
--- a/lemur/plugins/lemur_verisign/plugin.py
+++ b/lemur/plugins/lemur_verisign/plugin.py
@@ -21,7 +21,6 @@ from lemur.common.utils import get_psuedo_random_string
 # https://support.venafi.com/entries/66445046-Info-VeriSign-Error-Codes
 VERISIGN_ERRORS = {
     "0x30c5": "Domain Mismatch when enrolling for an SSL certificate, a domain in your request has not been added to verisign",
-    "0x482d": "Cannot issue SHA1 certificates expiring after 31/12/2016",
     "0x3a10": "Invalid X509 certificate format.: an unsupported certificate format was submitted",
     "0x4002": "Internal QM Error. : Internal Database connection error.",
     "0x3301": "Bad transaction id or parent cert not renewable.: User try to renew a certificate that is not yet ready for renew or the transaction id is wrong",
@@ -58,6 +57,7 @@ VERISIGN_ERRORS = {
     "0x3105": "Organization Name Not Matched",
     "0x300a": "Domain/SubjectAltName Mismatched -- make sure that the SANs have the proper domain suffix",
     "0x950e": "Invalid Common Name -- make sure the CN has a proper domain suffix",
+    "0xa00e": "Pending. (Insufficient number of tokens.)"
 }