What do paralegals do in a law firm? For the longest time, it was thought that all a paralegal was hired to do is follow lawyers around doing their bidding. Essentially, paralegals were thought to be lawyer’s assistant, much like personal assistants. This could not be further from the truth.
In effect, a paralegal is an individual who can do almost all that a licensed lawyer can do. They are trained in matters of the law, are bound with experience that grants them more knowledge than a law school graduate and can execute more. But what exactly does a paralegal do?
What do paralegals do in a law firm?
Below are some duties of the duties of a paralegal.
Client interactions
A paralegal is left in charge of conducting any follow-up interviews with the client once the attorney in charge makes initial contact and does the first interview with the client. Such interviews are done to add information to what has already been provided by the client. Paralegals also offer clients direct access to the company as they can ask any queries they may have and get quick answers.
It would be much harder to locate the lead attorney at any time and get the answers they want in good time.
Locating and interviewing witnesses
Once the clients give their information and name witnesses pertinent to their case, paralegals may be charged with locating and interviewing the witnesses. With a clear understanding of the case and what is expected to be found out, the paralegal can come up with what questions to ask the witnesses to best bring out the information they need.
Undertake investigations and documentary research
This is a vital part of putting together a case. With the information gathered from the clients and the witnesses, the attorney has to find a way of putting the case together and find the best arguments to support the case. Given the little time that most attorneys have, they often end up giving such work to paralegals.
Legal research
It is necessary to have precedence for any argument brought before the court; this is not to say you cannot have an original argument but one with precedence is stronger. As such, it is the paralegal’s job to do legal research on any former arguments that could work for the current case. It is also necessary to ensure that no legal table is left unturned. So the paralegal has to go through all laws surrounding the case.
Drafting of legal documents
This is one of the most common jobs for paralegals. Such legal documents as agreements, correspondence and pleadings are done by paralegals. These documents can take up a lot of time and require details.
Serving legal documents
The paralegals also sometimes assist in serving legal documents on defendants or respondents. If you need more information about serving legal documents, and paralegal services visit PST.
Summarizing depositions and testimonies
Small details can easily break a case. The depositions and testimonies must be confirmed to be clear. It is the paralegal’s work to ensure that the summaries and depositions are done right to the final detail; every t crossed and every I dotted.
There you go, everything there is to know about “What do paralegals do in a law firm?”.
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