Law
Paralegals may attest to the fact that their work can be demanding and thus requires proper time management to meet multiple deadlines. Imagine that a senior partner has assigned your supervising attorney to litigate a breach of contract case, and your supervising attorney has asked you to help her prepare. In preparation for trial, complete the following.
Write a five to six (5-6) page paper in which you:
1. Describe two (2) ways in which using an electronic research tool could increase your productivity on the case.
2. Explain two (2) ways that you could use electronic spreadsheets in order to organize your case load.
3. Explore the concept of document review, and indicate the manner in which you could use Microsoft Office to establish a document review for the case.
Draft a legal memorandum, discussing whether paralegal fees for the electronic spreadsheets that you have created should be billed as clerical or legal services. The legal memorandum should include the question presented, a brief answer, the rationale for the selected billing service, and a conclusion.
Draft a general letter to the client, requesting additional financial records for you to submit as a part of a timely response to a discovery request from opposing counsel. The legal correspondence should include the following lines / elements: to, from, regarding, date, body (including your specific request), and closing.
Appropriately incorporate at least (3) quality sources. A quality source can be either popular, such as a news article, or scholarly, such as peer reviewed works. Note: Wikipedia and other Websites do not qualify as quality resources. Visit the Strayer University Library at http://research.strayer.edu to conduct research.
Your assignment must follow these formatting requirements:
This course requires use of new Strayer Writing Standards (SWS). The format is different than other Strayer University courses. Please take a moment to review the SWS documentation for details.
Be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides; citations and references must follow SWS or school-specific format. Check with your professor for any additional instructions.
Include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student’s name, the professor’s name, the course title, and the date. The cover page and the reference page are not included in the required assignment page length.
The specific course learning outcomes associated with this assignment are:
Develop effective research strategies, and conduct effective and efficient research using conventional sources, the Internet, and computer-Helped legal research.
Develop effective legal writing skills using the following techniques: precision, clarity, readability, brevity, and order.
Use technology and information resources to research issues in legal research and writing.
Write clearly and concisely about legal research and writing using proper writing mechanics.
Law
Paralegal work is demanding and thus requires proper management to meet the set deadlines and the expectations of the client. The paralegals need to make proper arrangements in managing their legal work to ensure that their clients are satisfied and they can handle bulk work with efficiency. Equally important, in the preparation of court trials for various court cases one needs to research on the cases, conduct electronic spreadsheets to organize the case and drawing a document review for the case using Microsoft office. Adopting such strategies in the preparation and management of a case is a clear strategy towards winning. The cost of preparing a court through research and presentations should be forwarded to the client as legal fees. In preparing a case, the legal officer needs to get all the necessary documents and evidence of the case from the client to enable the lawyer to make adequate preparations leading to victory in the case. Preparation of for a court case calls for proper planning, adoption of the best practices and this had to be done with the help of client to provide the appropriate documents and evidence to ensure that a case is won.
Effectiveness of electronic research tool court cases
Electronic research tools automate research across all the fields of research thus making research easy and effective. Electronic research tools enable the researchers to access information in an organized, processed and available to the right people thus enabling proper and informed decision making. Therefore, there is a need to use electronic research tools in researching legal information. Using electronic research tools in legal practice enhances productivity in different ways. First, as a paralegal one will be in a position to access all the necessary and vital documents required in winning and handling different cases (Kuh, 2008). The court websites provide documents with courts opinion and legislative documents, transcripts, proceedings that are posted on a regular basis upon the determination of a case. The documents enable the paralegal to gain a lot of knowledge and information in preparation of cases at hand. Additionally, there other obscure documents such as information collections, policy statements, reports, forms and studies are made available and they Help in court cases. The internet is a great source of all the necessary documents. Therefore, the availability of the entire appropriate document for the cases enables paralegals to come up with effective winning strategies for their case.
On the other hand, electronic research tools are affordable, accessible readable and have a wide range of usability in regards to addressing legal issues (Kuh, 2008). In this case, the electronic research tool enhances multiple access to information. Multiple users can access legal information across the clock to enrich the court cases. Moreover, the adoption of electronic research tools in paralegal practices is a fast way to search and access vital information that can be used to build strong cases. The tools enable extraction of information that can be integrated in the existing information to build strong cases. More so, the tools introduce a great level of functionality in regard to using the available information and documents regarding cases. The tools enable the paralegals to analyze the contents of documents in various approaches such as using the search mode to address issues in the course of preparing for the case. Additionally, the electronic research tools provide content in different forms such as written documents, video, audio, and images such that a strong case can be built.
Using electronic spreadsheets organizing court caseloads
Electronic spreadsheets enable one to save, sort and manage data and information in rows and columns. The approach will be effectively used by the in managing various paralegal based activities. First, the paralegals can adopt the electronic spreadsheet to investigate hypothetical scenarios in different cases (Cucu, 2007). In this case, the paralegals will be in a position to analyze various scenarios on the spreadsheets to identify possible approaches and best practices of handling such cases. Upon analyzing cases, one will be in a position to identify various aspects and fundamental issues of a case thus enabling them to develop appropriate legal strategies to address cases at hand.
On the other hand, the paralegals can use the electronic spreadsheets to display options and configurations thus enabling decision making (Cucu, 2007). The electronic spreadsheets make it possible for presentation flexibility and functional customization. The legal data can be edited in the interest of presenting distinct issues arising in the case at hand as well as comparing it to a similar case that has already been determined. The data in the spreadsheet is configured with visual formatting for values and cell data that give rises to charts and graphs that enable in decision making regarding the approach to use in the case. Therefore, the paralegals will be in a position to make appropriate decisions on handling a case.
Document review using Microsoft
Document review entails an examination of documents or records to understand their content. The document review is used in the comparison of information in different documents to enable one to come up with the right decisions and conclusions (Ramaley et al., 2006). Document review is a vital part of the paralegal or legal practitioners to ensure that they present facts and counter the misrepresentations in courts of law. Also, document review is used in cases to determine if the information presented falls within the scope of discovery. In this case, paralegals and judicial officers need to adopt Microsoft office in the course of document review. First, paralegal officers can present fundamental aspects of a case through Microsoft PowerPoint this approach ensures that vital issues of a case are noted and they can be used to build a strong case. Consequently, Microsoft spreadsheet or excel can be used to compare and contrast issues of a case. The differences and similarities between the defendant and the plaintiff issues in a case can be presented through spreadsheets. The document review using spreadsheet and Excel enables the paralegal officer to present points to argue in a court of law.
Legal memorandum
TO:
FROM:
DATE:
SUBJECT: PARALEGAL FEES FOR PREPARING ELECTRONIC SPREADSHEETS
I wish to address the aforementioned issues in the interest of building a strong case. There is the Question Assignment on whether the charges on the electronic spreadsheets prepared should be billed as clerical or legal services.
The charges involved in the preparations of the electronic spreadsheet by the paralegals should be billed as the legal services. The fees should be billed as the legal services for most of the work involved in the preparation of spreadsheets is the work of legal professionals. There is a great input of legal professionals to ensure that they can use them in building strong court cases. Also, the legal professionals will be involved in the presentation of issues detailed on the spreadsheets.
In conclusion, the use of an electronic spreadsheet in handling a court case is an effective strategy of winning a court case. The spreadsheet ensures that fundamental aspects of a case are noted thus building a strong case. Additionally, loads of work involved in the preparation of legal electronic spreadsheets is done by legal professionals and thus the charges for the work should be billed under the legal charges.
YoursFaithfully
Lead Counsel
General letter
To:
From:
Date:
Dear Client
Regarding: Request for Additional Financial Records
Greetings, I wish to request for additional financial records in preparation for your case. The financial records are vital in response to the opposing counsel. In this case, additional financial records will be crucial in building a strong case.
Consequently, the required financial records will be strong evidence to show that you played your part in the contract. The evidence will further be used by the court in making the ruling and deciding the compensatory and punitive damages. Additionally, the required financial records should include all the documents both in soft and hardcopy to ensure that the contract proceeding can be tracked as per the initial agreement entered.
In conclusion, the additional financial records are vital in the case and should be submitted in good time to ensure that I can go through them. In case of any Question Assignment and issues please feel free to contact my office.
Yours Faithfully
Lead Counsel
Conclusion
Electronic research tools, electronic spreadsheets and document review processes need to be incorporated in the preparation and management of court cases. Proper management and approach to court cases ensure that the paralegals and legal officers adopt the most appropriate strategies in winning a case. Equally important adoption of the electronic strategy in gathering information and managing cases ensures efficiency and effectiveness on the part of paralegals.
References
Cucu, L. (2007). The Requirement for Metadata Production Under Williams v. Sprint/United Management Co.: An Unnecessary Burden for Litigants Engaged in Electronic Discovery. Cornell L. Rev., 93, 221.
Kuh, K. F. (2008). Electronically Manufactured Law. Harv. JL & Tech., 22, 223.
Ramaley, A., Serdy, V., Mcateer, S. E., Tharamal, S., Olsen, T., & Edelstein, N. (2006). U.S. Patent No. 7,107,518. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
