The foundation of any industry, corporation, business or sector is based on its ability to fine-tune its operation to an extent that it has the time to focus on aspects that really contribute to growth and development.
These are known as core activities and while their importance cannot be questioned there is another side to the picture. There is always a wide range of tasks that support the main ones without which no industry can function well. The same is relevant for the legal scenario too.
Client servicing, trials, depositions and exact interpretation of the law form the basis of legal practice but all these have to be ably backed up by drafting of contracts, agreements, documents and letters and legal research on cases including non-legal research. These paralegal tasks are crucial to the success of any case.
It has been proved beyond any reasonable doubt that if you opt for paralegal support services it can do wonders for your legal firm. But before coming to a detailed analysis of how and why this can be achieved, it will be relevant to see the areas of law for which you can take help of these specialized services.
These include broadly all branches of corporate and business law, criminal and civil law, banking, finance, bankruptcy and labor, and employment law and others pertaining to patents and trademarks, product liability, personal injury, and immigration laws.
This list is only indicative and not exhaustive in nature. Any backup required under these laws can be safely entrusted to paralegal outsourcing agencies that have over the years built up a strong infrastructure of resources and are well versed in the finer nuances of every aspect of the law.
There are two scenarios that will be considered here and these are the biggest beneficiaries of a top of the line paralegal support services:
1. Law firms and corporations:
While the business goals are different for these two entities, there is common ground when it comes toĀ outsourcing paralegal services. In both cases, you can take assistance on-demand from these agencies without resorting to adding to the staff strength whenever there is a short-term rise in legal requirements. This will keep overheads under control.
There is also an increase in productivity as you have the time to focus on core activities related to your business or law firm while outsourcing the regular and tedious tasks to paralegals. Examples of the work that can be delegated include assistance in due diligence, reviewing contracts and agreements and normal corporate assistance in legal matters which the regular legal department need not be tied down to.
For law firms specifically, you can be sure that paralegal support services have the necessary professional expertise to carry out all backup services. You do not need to get tied down to the tedious task of legal research, drafting, and preparation of contracts and agreements and reviewing existing letters and documents for loopholes in the law.
This saves you the costs of hiring a legal team to look after these aspects only, more so since backup work is mostly on a project to project basis and not all forms run simultaneously. Permanent staff will, therefore, be underutilized.
2. Small firms and individual practitioners:
This is the sector that is most benefitted by paralegal support services. If you have a small law firm these services are like an extension of your business. You need not be limited by scalability issues knowing there is a whole team of expert paralegals to support you.
There is a significant saving in infrastructure investment as the majority of the work can be outsourced while you focus on incremental business and new clients as well as trials and depositions. The research and preparation of briefs will be ready for you at prices that will not break your bank.
The same is true for individual and solo practitioners of law who can depend on expert services, both on legal and administrative fronts. They can expand business knowing that there is always a team of senior paralegals to back them up in every respect. This is a big help especially when they take on more business without having to incur prohibitive overheads. – By: Benny Henson
lend more time to pay attention to the core functions.
An Overview of Paralegal Outsourcing Services:
Case Management:
- Reviewing, organizing, indexing and summarizing client files
- Preparing different correspondence
- Preparing a variety of pleadings
Discovery Preparation:
- Drafting Subpoenas, Interrogatories, and Discovery Demands
- Detailed Analysis Reports of Depositions and Interrogatories
- Witness Summary
- Requesting for Medical Reports and Detailed Analysis of Medical Reports
Trial Preparation:
- Expert witness report summarization
- Document summarization for discovery
- Property search from public records
- Document Management with the use of software Casemap
Legal Document Production:
- Contracts
- Power of attorneys
- Prenuptial agreements
- Case Information statements
- Property Settlement agreements
Editorial Support:
Editorial support to publishers who are looking for value-added enhancements to their publications. Our services comprise of:
- Abstraction of case law and legal journals
- Indexing legal material
- Legal research
- Copy editing
Organizing Legal Database:
- Creating legal databases for law firms and corporates
- Providing assistance in organizing the information into an index and searchable database
Proofreading Services:
- Reviewing and rectifying spellings
- Making grammatical changes, if needed
- Confirming uniformity in typefaces throughout the document
- Determining accurate and consecutive numbering of several elements like page numbers
- Looking for errors in formatting
- Validating table of contents with elements like titles and subtitles
- Validating the appropriateness of in-text illustrations
- Real Estate Title Search
- Data Entry Services
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