Legal support assistants, paralegals, or legal assistants are an important part of the legal gamble. Their functions are diverse and serve well in assisting lawyers and the legal workings of the system. We will discuss each area in detail.
The legal support assistants create various types of legal papers. This duty involves:
Drafting: Preparing the first drafts of contracts, pleadings, motions, briefs, affidavits, wills or trusts. This requires a good command of legal language as well as familiarity with the structural designs of legal documents.
Editing: Analysing and improving written documents for legality and clarity as essential elements and internal compliance considerations. This often involves going back and forth in revisions with the attorney’s comments taken into account in making those revisions.
Formatting: Employ appropriate document styling, including formats of documents specialised to courts or jurisdictions. This may mean writing in such a manner that there are page and citation limits as well as allowed varieties of margins and typesetting.
Organisation: Properly files physical and digital documents in order and in files. This, more often than not, means having to make and use filing systems that include complicated and interrelated index systems.
Version Control: Takes care of tracking the version of documents and confirms that all the concerned persons are working on the latest version.
Legal research, without any doubt, can be called one of the most important and integral parts of the task of the legal support assistant. This includes:
Database Searches: The application of Westlaw, LexisNexis, or Bloomberg Law to seek legal case laws, statutes, and legal commentary is legal Database Searches.
Online Research: Searching through Understanding Online sources such as government websites, academic websites, and other teaching on particular issues or new reforms in the law.
Case Law Analysis: Examine court rulings to become familiar with legal rules that have been established to be used in future matters.
Statutory Interpretation: Reading rules and regulations about the area of concern or law.
Research Summaries: Writing research reports to lawyers. Such summaries often convey relevant facts, citations, and advocacy to lawyers concerning a particular case and its implications.
For legal matters to proceed as expected, proper case management is necessary. Legal support assistants usually:
File Organisation: Prepare and manage a full set of case documents that consist of any or all types of records, correspondence, and reports, including evidence.
Calendar Management: Do not forget to monitor deadlines for the entire case course, including the date of hearings, the date of submission of the statement or complaints, and the date after which no legal proceedings can commence. This is mostly done through specialised legal calendaring programs.
Scheduling: Make arrangements for meetings, depositions, or court appearances and get all people ready.
Client and Witness Coordination: Work as a liaison between the clients and the witnesses by scheduling for their interviews, preparing them for depositions, and providing sufficient details.
Evidence Tracking: Cause the recording of every piece of evidence in detail with a chain of evidence reports where appropriate.
Even if arguments and advocacy are left to the lawyers, Legal Support Assistants remain the clients’ most contact point. Their tasks may involve:
Intake Interviews: Conducting a speak with clients to obtain preliminary information about their cases.
Regular Updates: Alerting clients as to the progress of their cases, new deadlines, or other actions that need to be taken.
Query Handling: Responding to low-level questions asked by the clients or referring high-level queries to the tasked attorney.
Documentation Requests: Helping clients obtain certain documents and other resources required for their cases.
Meeting Rooms: Manage and organise lawyer and client meet-up sessions by calling and preparing relevant documents and materials to be briefed.
If the case goes to trial, legal support assistants are essential in preparing for the trial matters.
Legal support assistants often perform several other auxiliary activities that are otherwise referred to as housekeeping functions, which are equally important for the smooth running of a law office.
Correspondence Management: Writing, sending, and recording all correspondence generated about the case, whether it is addressed to the client, the opposite party, or the court, including the letters.
Court Filings: Filing with the relevant courts all the necessary papers in or within a reasonable time, whenever possible, in both electronic and paper forms.
Legal Library Maintenance: Replacement of long-dated legal materials with modern forthcoming resources in the firm’s legal library, as well as ensuring that legal journals that have been subscribed to our current and necessary reference materials are not outdated.
Billing and Invoicing: Responsible for tracking billable hours, sending out invoices, and maintaining client billing details.
Office Management: General office assistance like placing orders, taking care of office appliances, and working with external clients.
It may be worth noting that the set skills demanded from legal support assistants may vary immensely in line with the specialisation that they wish to pursue. They may include:
Corporate Law: Within this domain, legal support assistants may specialise on:
Criminal Law: While working with criminal law, one may:
Intellectual Property Law: In this specific field, the duties may include:
Family Law: In family law, legal support assistants may:
Real Estate Law: Here, the following duties may be carried out:
Legal Support Assistants acquire the necessary education in the following ways:
Associate’s Degree: Most of them do so after earning an associate’s degree in paralegal studies or similar qualifications. The duration of these programs is usually about two years and students are taught basic legal principles, research methods, and skill application.
Bachelor’s Degree: More legal support assistants hold a bachelor’s degree either in paralegal or other fields, and after that, get a course in paralegal studies. This kind of standardised education can help improve the chances of getting jobs and may be an obligation in high-rank positions.
Certifications: Most legal support assistants hold further accreditation even though the accreditation might not be compulsory.
Continuing Education: It is extremely important as the area is actively developing and new information constantly appears. Many legal support assistants also have to participate in workshops, seminars, and conferences on the changes made in the law and legal technology.
Legal support assistants are an under-appreciated group of professionals without whom the legal practitioners would be hard-pressed to delve deeply into those tough documents on legal issues or legal representation in a court setting. It is neither purely a legal occupation nor a purely administrative vocation.
With legal developments and technology innovation in particular, the position of legal support assistants will probably become more varied and critical. From database administration to e-evidence e-discovery, those people will remain at the brightest edge of legal practice.
If you think of becoming a legal support assistant, it would be a great chance for you to deal with logical and critical problems, apply practical skills at work, and help people with their legal issues. Legal support assistants have a lot of responsibilities that contribute toward the administration of justice anywhere their work is done, whether in a law office, corporate watchdog, or the government.
With the evolution of technology and the changing challenges in the legal industry, the role of competent legal support assistant will be on the rise. Their access to traditional laws and new technologies will render them indispensable assets in the legal determining of the future.
Copyright 2022 © Owen Reed Ltd.
