What Are the Duties of a Litigation Paralegal?
A litigation paralegal performs many varied duties. These fall into categories such as general, pre-litigation, commencement of action, discovery, document production, depositions, settlement, pre-trial, trial and post-trial. Types of duties include document drafting and review, legal and factual research, interviewing, investigation, database maintenance and more.
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General Duties
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General duties can occur at any stage of litigation or even between cases. They include maintaining legal opinion databases; conducting research; maintaining a repository or database of court rules; collecting, organizing and maintaining form files; tracking and reporting legislation and case law that may affect clients; and reviewing legal periodicals relevant to specialty litigation practice areas.
Pre-Litigation and Commencement of Action
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Pre-litigation duties include participating in the initial client interview, conducting research to determine the appropriate jurisdiction, conducting conflict clearance checks and drafting the demand letter. Duties at the commencement of an action including drafting the summons and complaint on the plaintiff's behalf or drafting the answer on the defendant's behalf; arranging for service of process; working with attorneys to develop defenses, case theory and trial strategy; and participating in mediation or arbitration.
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Discovery, Document Production and Deposition
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Discovery is a fact-finding process that occurs after filing a lawsuit and before trial. It allows the parties to prepare for settlement or trial. Discovery duties for a paralegal include participating in the formulation of a discovery plan; conducting or coordinating factual investigation; drafting requests for production, interrogatories and requests for admissions; drafting responses to discovery requests; preparing motions to compel discovery or motions for sanctions; and obtaining public records relevant to the facts of the lawsuit. Document production duties include obtaining the client's documents, determining what documents to produce, reviewing documents for privilege, drafting privilege logs, coding case documents and performing or supervising productions. A deposition is sworn testimony of a witness reduced to writing or video for later use in court proceedings. Deposition duties include preparing witness files, preparing the client to give a deposition, attending the deposition and taking notes, preparing deposition digests and assisting in editing video depositions.
Settlement
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A settlement resolves a lawsuit by agreement without having a trial. Settlement duties include preparing mediation presentations and settlement calculations, attending settlement conferences with attorneys and clients and drafting settlement agreements, releases and orders.
Pre-Trial, Trial and Post-Trial
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Pretrial duties include preparing trial notebooks, verdict forms and visual aids; organizing and preparing exhibits; arranging for projectors and screens; summarizing depositions; and drafting witness questions and jury instructions. Trial duties concern clients, witnesses and jurors, as well as the trial itself. Jury duties include obtaining the jury list and biographical information on potential jurors, drafting jury instructions, attending jury selection and developing a chart of the jury chosen with information gathered during the selection process. Client and witness duties include discussing courtroom etiquette, coordinating lay and expert witnesses' attendance at trial, drafting trial subpoenas for non-party witnesses and developing outlines for direct and cross-examination. Other duties include coordinating exchange of trial exhibits with other parties; managing evidence; maintaining list of exhibits as identified, offered and admitted; obtaining daily electronic data, audio or videotape transcripts; ordering hearing transcripts; and preparing index or outline of transcripts. Post-trial duties include drafting findings of fact and conclusions of law, motions for new hearing or motions to amend the judgment, documents regarding satisfaction of judgment and notice of appeal, if applicable.
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