Learn about the role that a paralegal plays in creating a trial notebook during trial preparation. Remember to put the trial preparation list in the front.
Criminal justice school training course a nd career info for Paralegals. Learn about requirements, salary and job opportunity; help lawyers with research, investigation, and organization.
In our latest guest blog, Brett Surbey offers six tips for improving your paralegal writing skills to communicate effectively in your career.
How important is a trial notebook for paralegals? What do paralegals and paralegal students need to know about manning the trial notebook? Read on...
Prepare for that upcoming interview by studying these common paralegal interview questions.
Not everything in law school is as complicated as the Rule Against Perpetuities. And potentially getting a discount on your GEICO car insurance through your bar association is even more simple!
Organization tips are not all the same. It can be overwhelming when you are a new paralegal, especially when you're trying to stay organized.
The duties of a paralegal primarily consist of supporting attorneys by conducting legal research, performing legal writing and drafting legal documents. That means researching cases, drafting litigation documents – complaints, answers, motions. Also reviewing discovery documents. In non-litigation environment that can be preparing corporate documents, such as annual minutes, company formation documents, contracts, leases, and more. In the end, paralegal duties consist primarily of legal support tasks.
Paralegals in small law firms often manage the entire office. Here's a quick course on the basics of law office management.
Paralegals have a tough, often unforgiving job. On top of research, paperwork, clerical work, errands, and courtroom time, a paralegal’s job is fraught with schedule conflicts, appointment tracking, follow-up research, and so much more. With all of this on his or her plate, a paralegal must be the most optimized, organized, and punctual person in …
Legal Break-In Book How to break into the paralegal, legal assistant or legal secretary field.
Are you considering a paralegal career? These are the top 10 paralegal skills that attorneys look for in a paralegal.
A recent study found that, on average, a mere quarter of an attorney’s working hours are spent on billable tasks — and the percentage is even lower for solo practitioners. Technology can address this problem. However, let’s face it: There are more technology solutions for lawyers than ever before, and the options can seem overwhelming. Every new legal tech vendor claims to be the cure for your practice woes, but how can you even determine which technology you need in the first place? As an attorney and now the CEO of a legal tech company, I use a concept known as "process mapping." You can apply the same methodology to identify which areas of your legal workflow are ripe for automation.
Paralegals conduct important legal research and complete many daily tasks law firms rely on to properly serve clients. You'll need to submit a well-written paralegal resume with your next job application if you want to work at a well-established law firm. Check out our paralegal resume example, and 4 insider tips for help.
For many 1Ls, it is coming to close of the school year, which means two things: (1) Finals and (2) Law Review Write-On. Law Review is o...
Paralegals conduct important legal research and complete many daily tasks law firms rely on to properly serve clients. You'll need to submit a well-written paralegal resume with your next job application if you want to work at a well-established law firm. Check out our paralegal resume example, and 4 insider tips for help.
Learn how to become a paralegal, and find out what a paralegal does, how much do paralegals make, how to enroll in a paralegal program and more.
Small law firms can often be caught between a rock and a hard place when it comes to technology. Here are some quick technology upgrades.
We have updated and expanded our popular Vitamins & Minerals guide to ensure complete coverage of what you need for good long-term health. Every important vitamin and mineral is listed in a handy table format, along with the various disorders they are used for and recommended amounts. Learn what natural resources and foods contain these vital vitamins and minerals and much more. Access to this important information has never been easier! Topics covered include: Cardiovascular Disorders Gastrointestinal Disorders Genital/Urinary Disorders Musculoskeletal Disorders Respiratory Disorders & Allergies Adverse Reactions And more!
Civil Procedure—Highly Tested MBE Topics, Charts, and a Checklist!
Bluebook--"The citation guide that is generally considered the authoritative reference for America legal citations.” -Black’s Law Dictionary Last week, my TA for Legal Writing hosted a session introducing us to the Bluebook. Over the past eight years, I’ve used about five other citation styles so it was a little annoying to have to learn another one. Though, hopefully, this will be the only one I’ll have to use again! Learning to use the Bluebook isn’t that bad and what has been really helping me is the supplemental materials my professor required us to use. The supplemental book is called Understanding and Mastering the Bluebook and has an online interactive workbook for an additional fee. If you buy a new copy of the book, there’s a discount code for the online portion that comes with the book. For my class, I’m required to complete the exercises online but I find them kind of fun. They’re like a puzzle to figure out the correct way of citing something. So, let's talk about the specifics of the Bluebook so you know a little bit about what’s contained in it. It seems super mysterious and you might hear everyone talking about it but when it comes down to it it’s just a super detailed guide to citation. It’s broken down into three parts: Bluepages-general overview of the legal citation system White pages-more elaborate discussion of the rules of citation and style Tables-includes jurisdictions’ authorities and abbreviations for certain words and different states or geographical areas. You may be wondering about the difference between the Bluepages and the Whitepages are. Well, the Bluepages is like the Cliff Notes version of the Whitepages and every rule contained in the Blue pages references the more elaborate discussion in the Whitepages. A nice feature the publishers of the Bluebook added is the different colored edges of the pages. So the Bluepages are, you got it, blue! In addition to these sections, the front and back covers have some super important features as well. The front cover is a reference for law review (which you don’t really need to worry about your 1L year but is handy to know about after that) and the back cover is a quick reference of how to cite all of the frequently used sources, such as cases, statutes, the internet, etc. In addition to going over this material, my TA told us to tab the pages that are frequently used in the Bluebook. I’ll list them here and feel free to tab others that you deem important. All of these page numbers are for the 20th edition but are in all of the other editions. Here’s the list of tabbed pages: Case Citation-pg. 10 Short Form Citation-pg. 16 Quotations-pg. 82 Cases (Whitepages explanation)-pg. 94 Internet resources-pg. 178 Table to Federal Judicial and Legislative Material-pg. 223 State of Your Choosing- starting on page 248 (this should be the state in which you go to school since they’ll likely require you to use binding sources from that state) Tables of Abbreviations-pg. 496 There are two types of citations that are important: full citations and short form citations. The first is the citation with all of the information necessary about the case being cited. The second is used after the long form has been used and that same case is being referenced at a later point. Ex: Muscarello v. United States, 524 U.S. 125 (1998). Muscarello, 524 U.S. at 128. As you can see, the Bluebook way of citing things is really not all that different from any other types of citation. It’s just something you need to get used to. That’s what I like about the online Mastering the Bluebook exercises; they provide multiple opportunities to understand the intricacies and it tells you what parts of the citation you got wrong and why. Good luck to everyone learning how to use the Bluebook and I hope my recap of my TA session helps!
What does a paralegal do? Find the answer with these detailed descriptions of paralegal duties in different areas of the law and paralegal employment.
To overcome language barriers a paralegal need to hire an interpreter, that clearly understand the legal procedure of an individual court.
You might be surprised to discover that many of the skills you use in daily life could also translate to a paralegal career. If any of these scenarios sound familiar, you might be closer to becoming a paralegal than you realize.
Ann interviews guest Jessie Foss on how she started her career without a paralegal certificate. This Q & A will give you insight on how to advance your paralegal career.
