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<div class="NTForums_Quote">Posted By n/a on 07/25/2008 01:48 PM I work at a civil defense firm in SC. The firm is comprised of 3 partners and four associates. Our firm focuses primarily on personal injury (where we represent the Defendant's and/or his insurance carrier), construction litigation (which is a nightmare), and my boss, one of the founding partners, also works in family law and estate planning. A typical day for me involves first checking any phone messages, e-mails or any notes that my boss may have left for me since the previous work day. I maintain a task list so that I can prioritize what needs to be done, b/c I am generally working on 6-8 cases per week, with new ones being assigned weekly. My work consists of preparing responsive pleadings (i.e. Answer to Plaintiff's Complaint), discovery requests and discovery responses, letters of representation to clients, letters of acknowledgement of assignment of case to insurance adjusters, taking clients' phone calls and answering whatever questions they may have (if I'm not sure, I pass the call on to my boss). Deadlines rule my job, and if I slip (which, admittedly, I have once before), there is hell to pay. If  case goes into default (meaning, the Answer was not submitted on time), we have to file Motions with the Court to allow our client to answer. I subpoena medical records and bills, bank account statements, employment records, etc. and update our files as they come in. I maintain a medical summary for every personal injury case we have. I also schedule client appointments, mediations, depositions, send out Notices of Depositions, schedule court reporters as needed, and handle all of the invoices that come in for medicals, depositions, copy fees, etc. I also act as my boss's personal assistant, ordering flowers upon request, making hotel, plane and car rental reservations, providing my boss with directions when she has a meeting, deposition, etc. out of town. I also have to keep up with her expenses and enter those into the system so we can bill for them. My boss is also a part-time judge, so I have to keep up with her court schedule as well. Each insurance carrier has different requirements for their cases, i.e. different reports due at different times, e-mail everything to one but not to the others, what is considered to be billable varies from company to company. At our firm, any bill we receive that is $100+ must be forwarded to the adjuster for payment, and a lot of adjusters are very, very slow in paying these bills. Construction litigation cases usually have at least 3-5 defendants, which is a HEADACHE to deal with. I hate construction cases. Regarding family law, my boss is sometimes appointed as a Guardian ad Litem, which means she acts solely for the best interest of the child. This is typically in custody cases. Estate planning is not one of my favorites, and I'm lucky that our work in that area is few and far between. It's usually for my boss' friends or family. All I do is type up whatever she tells me to and then act as a witness when the client comes in to sign the document(s). I also cross-trained with our bookkeeper, so when she's out of the office, I am responsible for whatever needs to be done that day, i.e. deposits, running pre-bills or final bills, allocating deposits, and printing checks. This is just an idea of what I do on a daily basis. I can't speak for any other paralegals, but I'm sure their work is just as  involved as mine, if not more. It's hectic and stressful, but I enjoy it (most of the time lol). I hope this helps.</div>

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