How To Stay Organised As A Paralegal
Organisational skills are fundamental to the role of the paralegal, allowing them to manage calendar systems, track court dates and timings, and meet deadlines for filings. As a large part of a paralegal’s duties can involve case research, keeping that research properly organised is vital. Documents in a legal case are useless unless they are properly filed and indexed so that the documents may be pulled quickly and easily.
Thankfully, organisational skills are something that can be learned and built upon, even if you are not a natural organiser when you start your paralegal training. To help you improve on your clerical skills, we’ve listed four easy ways you can become more organised.
1. Make Lists and Prioritize
Lists are one of the key tools of a paralegal and of an organised person. Learn to keep lists of your tasks and responsibilities, ideally split into monthly, weekly, and daily sections. Splitting up your tasks like this allows you to prioritize them by assigning numbers or placing them in order of importance.
Prioritizing your list will allow you to focus your attention on the most immediate and important tasks while crossing them off your list will keep you motivated. Once your list is prioritized you won’t have to waste going over it again to look for the next most important task, it will already be marked out on your list, ready to be addressed efficiently.
2. Use a Calendar
Your calendar should be where you note all of your most important information. Court appearances, appointments, filing deadlines, reminder emails, and phone calls should all be noted on your calendar. A good email calendar will also allow you to book in and confirm appointments, making sure that interviews and respondents receive the same email reminders that you do and reducing the chances that someone will waste your time by not showing up to a pre-arranged appointment.
3. Keep a Clean and Orderly Desk
During busy caseloads it can be easy to let your desk turn into a graveyard for discarded files, papers, notepads, and other documents. A confusing and chaotic workspace just slows you down as you have to search through it for important files and client documents.
An organised desk allows you to quickly and efficiently lay your hands on relevant paperwork without having to search for it. Rather than letting paperwork pile up, take some time out to tidy it up and file it in the proper location. The small amount of time you spend doing this will seem like time well spent when you are able to locate a vital file in record time.
4. File Documents
Maintaining, updating, and filing the documents in a client’s file is an essential responsibility of all paralegals and simply adding documents to file is not adequate. An unorganised file can be very difficult to navigate and, in a time sensitive situation, leafing through a file to find vital information can cause your attorney time, effort, and potentially embarrass them in front of a client or judge.
Join One Of The Best Paralegal Schools In Las Vegas Today!
Here at Northwest Career College, we run the top paralegal program in Nevada, offering our students the skills and experience they need to successfully enter the field of paralegal work and position themselves to maximize their earnings. Our Paralegal instructors are seasoned attorneys and highly trained professionals who are able not only to teach you the law but also to guide you through the many ways a paralegal integrates into a Las Vegas law practice.
We offer on-campus and online paralegal classes to accommodate your work and family schedule. Our Career Services team will work with you to help you find the best paralegal employment opportunity in Las Vegas, and their expertise in this area has given us a 100% success rate in job placement rate for paralegal graduates. Call us today at (702) 403-1592 to find out what our paralegal program can offer you.
Written by:
Lisa Myers, J.D., L.L.M.
Legal Studies Department Director
J.D. L.L.M. Campbell University
B.A. Corllins University