What Is a Litigation Paralegal?

A litigation paralegal has a lot of responsibilities. Of the different types of paralegals, the litigation paralegal is most likely the one required to put in some overtime, because of the amount of work required. The litigation paralegal's main job is to prepare pleadings and discovery packages for the case she is working on.

Significance

A litigation paralegal saves his attorney much in the way of time, since his main duty--preparing discovery and disclosure--can be a very time-consuming task, depending on the case at hand. On some medical or personal injury cases, there can be reams of medical information that must be processed for opposing counsel and, at the time of trial, for the court.

Function

The litigation paralegal has daily duties, such as corresponding with clients, drafting pleadings for the attorney and meeting with clients to get information about each client's case. The main duty of the litigation paralegal is to prepare discovery and disclosure in the case. Documents are provided by the client and by opposing counsel. These documents must be read through, organized and filed. The litigation paralegal will also collect documents from the client to forward to opposing counsel as part of the discovery process. Once the documents are collected from the client, the litigation paralegal must organize them and catalog them before forwarding to opposing counsel. The same documents, plus documents provided by opposing counsel, will also get organized and cataloged for use by the paralegal's boss, the attorney for the client.

Types

There are different types of litigation, such as family law, personal injury, medical malpractice ("med-mal"), criminal and business litigation. Most paralegals specialize in one or two areas of law, just as attorneys do, and generally work in their field. Some attorneys handle many different types of cases. For example, an attorney may take personal injury, family and criminal cases. This type of attorney needs a litigation paralegal well-versed in all three areas of law. He may hire a litigation paralegal with a strong personal injury background and then train her in the areas of family and criminal law, or he may try his luck finding a litigation paralegal versed in all three areas.

Time Frame

A litigation paralegal generally has a 2- or 4-year degree and, depending on the area of the country and area of practice of the attorney, may need up to 8 to 10 years of experience in her chosen area. Some attorneys require an experienced litigation paralegal with 4 to 5 years of experience.

Considerations

A litigation paralegal has a high degree of responsibility. He must be sure that every piece of discovery is in place. The discovery must be organized in such a manner that the attorney can easily find it during the trial. He will create the trial notebook for discovery and will go through the organization process with the attorney. In a case with a large trial, the litigation paralegal may have to work overtime and may have to deliver trial notebooks to opposing counsel and the court. These are usually due no later than 3 days before the start of the trial.