- Notebooks Create Documents Organize Files Manage Tasks 1 3 1/4
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Files seem to take on a life of their own and the problem is that most of them are not happy creatures. Left to their own devices files can grow into these incredible monsters. Trouble is that with so many other things creeping up on us every second of the day the time we have to dedicate to these monsters is very short. The file monster is not very forgiving either. It totally demands your attention, at least a few hours a week.
More often than not we can find new paralegals sitting on the floor of their office (or the paralegal area) totally bewildered looking down at a bunch of papers not knowing which end is up. How could this file have gotten like this? Good question. The attorney must have gotten to it. But he only had it for a couple of hours……. Yeah, it usually only takes them a few minutes. Especially if they are looking for something in a hurry, on the way to court or on a call with a client…. it doesn't take much to get a file looking like it's been through a hurricane.
Usually what I do is sit down on the floor with them and encourage them to cry if they have to. It's ok…. I've cried too. Heck sometimes I still do!!!!!!! All those non-billable hours spent organizing a file to find it back at my desk looking like that? Anyway…. Type fu 4 7 13. it wasn't done on purpose. Filing and organization is not one of the classes in law school. That's why they hired you. You got this.
Translatium 10 2 1 – powerful translation app for macos. First things first: Let's separate the papers into piles that make sense. A legal file is made up of a few subsections:
Notes: To create a notebook in SharePoint, see Create and share a notebook on a SharePoint site. It's best to create your notebook on OneDrive or another shared location. When a notebook is in the cloud, it's still private (unless you choose to share it with others). Project or Client-Based File Organization System. A project or client-based structure is perhaps the simplest to stick to. Every project or client—how you split things up really depends on what sort of work you do—gets its own dedicated folder. Within each project or client folder, you keep all the relevant files and documents. Notebooks allows you to quickly write down notes or carefully create documents, manage tasks and projects, and store and organize files in unlimited h. Draw, highlight, scan & record notes and documents. Annotate PDFs, fill forms and sign documents. Create your Notebooks (binders) & tree-like projects. The way you like.
1. Correspondence – you know what that looks like right? usually has a date up at the top with the name and address of the lawyer or sender way at the top of the page. Dxo filmpack elite edition 5 5 26 build 602. Don't worry about the dates for now. That's not important, not at this stage.
. Use Evernote as a planner to organize your life and stay on task. Write memos and journal entries on the go with an easy-to-use notepad. EVERNOTE IN BUSINESS. Create agendas, manage plans, update journals, and jot down notes and memos. Keep everyone up to date by capturing meeting notes and sharing notebooks with your team. Organizing office files can be a difficult task, especially if you have large amounts of files and documents, but it does not need to be a painful process. Planning ahead and deciding on a file system can help you organize your files to suit your business and ensure that you will find important documents more efficiently.
2. Pleadings – This can be confusing for a new paralegal. Sometimes discovery can look like a pleading so the way I explain the difference to new paralegals as well as the way I learn it and keep it straight is by knowing that all pleadings get filed with the court. Free download sound editing software for windows 7. So, if it has a court stamp at the top or if it's something that was sent to the court clerk for filing you can bet it's a pleading. That goes into a second pile. Make sure you have all the pages. Usually the last page is the signature page and all pages are numbered. Easy enough right?
3. Motions – This is one is a tricky one. Some law firms file the motions along with the pleadings. After all, they are filed with the court. I don't necessarily disagree with that. By doing it this way your pleading file will tell a story. Making it easier to figure out why a pleading has been filed with a court. However, I like to keep motions separate from the rest of the pleadings. My reason for that is that usually he attorney will need to pull motions out of the file or respond to a motion and he/she doesn't necessarily need the whole pleading file. Also, sometimes the attorney needs to go to court to argue a motion. There is no need to have the complaint and the answer (it's only going to cause the same chaos you are now facing if the attorney has to pull papers out of a file for one little motion). So for me, keeping it separate is key. If necessary I can make copies of the motions, mark them duplicate and note where to find the originals. Then I put a copy in with the pleadings and the original in a motion folder…. Anyway, I'm getting ahead of myself.
4. Discovery – This is going to be all the other things that look like a pleading but don't get filed with the court. These are answers to interrogatories, responses to document requests. The funny thing is that sometimes some of these may look like correspondence. So you will have to read the first and second paragraphs of the letters to make sure it's not a letter supplementing answers to interrogatories.
5. Misc. – Depending on what type of file these could be anything so you will have to label the folder accordingly. If it's a personal injury file this is probably going to be your medical records, your accident report, the retainer agreement (very important that you find this one) and all other papers that do not fall nicely into any of the above four categories.
Ok, you see, not so bad. Now you have a more organized chaos on your floor and a little bit more room to move around. So we can move to a different area to dry our tears.
Next you are going to one pile at a time. Let's say you picked the correspondence file. I usually pick this one because it's usually the largest pile and because after reading the correspondence I'll more of less know what should be in the other piles. I will also know the story of the file a little bit better. So go ahead, read on. It can be fun. I have found some really funny letters written by the clients or the adversaries and it always makes for some good humor while doing a really boring job. While you are reading this file make sure you put it chronological order. At this point, if it's a very old file, I start making piles with the correspondence. I separate it by year. Make sure you start with the oldest correspondence. Work your way to the present. Now the correspondence is done. Have you noticed? There aren't that many more papers. All the other stuff is just bulky but usually not as much as the correspondence.
By doing the largest pile you will feel more accomplished and you will feel like you can conquer any other task thrown at you. Be ready, other tasks will be thrown at you…. Photostitcher 2 1 2 ball valve. Just a thought.
Now pick up the pleadings. You also want to make sure you file these in chronological order. Most firms file pleadings in pronged folders. If this is the way your firm operates then go ahead. They are less expensive than three ring binders so usually that why they do it that way. I like the three ring binder because if I have to get a pleading out of the file I don't have to get all the other pleadings out. Anyway, in this case you have to go with what you're given. Wait… Don't put them in yet. At this point, punch holes in the the papers and organize them. Next sit at your computer and let's start the pleading board.
For those of you who don't know what a pleading board is…. it's not a scientific term. Yeah, I know, lawyers like to speak in their own language. I find it interesting. A pleading board is a table of contents. Begin by entering the name of the first pleading and with number tabs separate each of them. So your pleading board will look something like this:
1. Complaint ………………………………………… January 1, 2014
2. Answer to Complaint …………………………. March 15, 2014
So on and so on and so on…. continue until you've listed all the pleadings. This always gives me such satisfaction. By the time you're all done it will look so pretty and the file starts to take shape. It's starting to look more like a legal file and not so much like a crazy pile of papers and you are taming the monster.
Once you are done with the pleadings move on to the motions. For me, each motion resides in it's special folder. I worked at a law firm where the motions had a special color folder…. actually all documents had special color folders. I liked that very much. It made it easy to find the documents you were looking for. However, if that's not what you have then a regular manila folder is fine. Just make sure you label each folder appropriately and include the date the motion was filed with the court. All corresponding documents go into that file. So when you pick up the motion file you have the entire history of that motion.
Same thing goes for discovery. The only difference is that discovery (answers to interrogatories, responses to document productions) will have to be broken apart. Reason? Well, answers to interrogatories and responses to production of documents come with large documents. If this is a personal injury file you will have medical records and these are very bulky at times. So what I do is keep the responses neatly in the folder and then right behind those I put in files for each of the records received with the responses. So I will have hospital records, doctors' notes and records, auto accident…. etc.
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The last thing you have left on your floor will be the misc. stuff. These can be anything. There will be attorney's notes, which I suggest you keep in a separate file. Attorneys sometimes take notes on post-it notes, napkins anything they can get their hands on when they're on the phone or speaking to a client on the way out of the court house. make sure you put all these in the folder. I normally make a copy of the post notes so they are the same size as the other papers in the file. It ensures that these little papers are not going to get lost and the file looks neater.
You will have deposition transcripts and these although not necessarily misc. stuff need their own folders. Most of the time there will be a manuscript and a regular transcript. I keep both together with my summary.
There you are. In a few hours we have organized a file. Don't get discouraged if it takes you longer than a few hours. My suggestion is that you do it when it's a quiet in the office and you have a few straight hours to do it. Remember most of it is going to be non billable time so make sure you can afford to do that. It needs to get done so you will have to find the time to do it. Maybe it can be done over the course of a few days. This way you are not losing that much time on your billable hours. Also remember some of it can probably be billed.
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1. Are you reviewing the medical records as you go along? If you do, remember to bill for review and analyze medical records pertaining to ….
2. Are you going to respond to document productions? or Interrogatories? Then bill time for the review of documents (name the documents) to assist in the preparation of responses to….
Most of all, have fun. Organizing a file is a boring job but you can make it fun. See if you can tell a story. See if you find something no one else has found. I would always compete with some other paralegals when working on large files to see who could come up with the best story or the better angle.
Being a paralegal can be and is fun if you take pride in what you do. I have been doing it for 20 years and I still think it's one of the best career choices I ever made.
Let me know how you do and if you have questions, please feel free reach to to me. I'd love to hear from you.
XoXo
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Ana
