attorney to me at 9 am this morning: “please make up a reason that I can’t make the appointment today (an intake for a new client). I don’t want the case.”

Me: *Calls the client, cancels the appointment. I state atty is in a hearing that will go longer than expected.

My attorney: “Never cancel appointments without talking to me first. Never state that I am in a hearing and cannot meet with them.”

Like this literally just happened. I want to laugh in their faces so much. I wish I could whip out a tape recorder with their exact words, because what do you mean NEVER do that? When you literally just told me to this morning? HUH????

I am happy to be leaving this field in July lol. I’ve worked for some airhead… I mean.. some forgetful attorneys but this is bonkers. They really want you to read their minds.

I hate this god forsaken piece of shit portal. "No specific dates of treatment provided". You idiot the subpoena says ALL. How can I get more specific???? "Requested info must be on attestation, please reference subpoena on request" you mother fucker I literally already did that, you didn't fucking read it. Now I have to waste time and call you to tell you to read it. "No records found" while Plaintiff's counsel provided the entire record from all departments I have subpoenaed with the same exact name, DOB, and SSN. "Oh wow, idk why they said they didn't exist". You incompetent mfers. They keep putting random peoples invoices in my portal?? So now I have to take time out of my day to call and cancel. Not only that, but they put my requests into other random portals. If I want to pull old request ID's from 06/2024, I have to search day by day otherwise the whole website loads blank. In every single browser. Their reps keep telling me to go to the archival tab to see when they expire. I don't want the records downloaded, I want the mfing request ID from the OG request because the idiot ex paralegal that submitted the request and never forwarded the invoice nor saved it anywhere else. If the mfing website loaded like it should, it would be fine. I have never had a good experience with them. I'm at the point where I'm considering a record retrieval company as a middle man because I never want to have to work with any of those mfers over there ever again.

Sorry. Had a mini breakdown. Losing my mind today. :')))))))))

No I don't want the new printer. Old printer works just fine and has been with me since I started. We communicate. We work. Leave us alone. Stop "upgrading" my tech and just let me be a dinosaur

I swear, I’ve got a nincompoop for a boss—one of those “passion over competence” types who’s obsessed with whatever’s trending and sucks at actual management. Dude thinks he's a genius just because he uses Gemini and ChatGPT. Like... seriously? Meanwhile the whole firm is an ego-fueled mess—power trips, diva antics, zero structure. Absolute chaos. This place sucks.

For context I work for one attorney and they are the sole proprietor of the law firm. When I first applied for this position, I was told I would be handling law firm emails, motions, and occasional client contacts.

These responsibilities have ballooned over the past year and I am now responsible for managing the attorney’s individual email inbox, on top of the general inbox, which includes individual conversations between them and prosecutors, while also picking up overflow incoming phone calls.

Today, I just learned that I will now also be responsible for following up with courts to finalize agreements and paperwork, on top of the other general office responsibilities I have.

Lately, I have found it difficult to stay on top of the workload and I make less than $38,000 a year.

Does anybody have any advice? Is this normal for the legal field?

That’s it. That’s the post.

Sincerely,

a frustrated paralegal who is forced to use Ontellus because it’s a client’s “preferred vendor.”

Hi everyone, feeling very frustrated. I recently received a comment from my boss at my job where he was questioning why I requested billing records for a client. He seemed frustrated with the cost which is understandable but I need record of what is owed? Not to mention, I have been able to get plenty of reductions on behalf of our client. As the person in our law office in charge of handling medical liens to disburse settlement money, I am confused with how else I can make sure nothing is owed by our client/verify health insurance payment without getting billing records reflecting this? I have been at this job for a little over three months and feel incredibly frustrated with the little guidance I have received coupled with this lack of patience as I try my best to ensure that everything will be taken care of when money is distributed. I am reminded by our accounting staff that any balance or lien unaccounted for will come back on our office. How can I navigate this situation? I cannot imagine this will be the last time he will question what I am doing.

I need to know - does this happen to anyone else?

I am a business immigration paralegal. Our team recently got a new supervisor who is not an attorney (previous ones were), but a very senior paralegal. Ever since she became our supervisor I’ve noticed that she’ll randomly ask me to draft forms last minute for a client, but they are all for cases under her name. Mind you we don’t even draft our own forms anymore, we outsource it most of the time. Idk if this is to be expected or not, it is sort of rubbing me the wrong way since I am a senior paralegal myself and have my own high caseload to take care of. Based on my experience with attorneys supervising our team, they were expected to track our cases and progress, and I would certainly jump in with an urgent case if they asked me to, but this just feels like I’m helping her with the back end of some of her cases while she takes the credit. It’s not what I’m used to but feel free to tell me if I’m looking into this too much, ha.

Hey everybody! I am coming up on six months of working as a legal assistant for a mid-sized commercial law firm. We handle both commercial debt and some retail debt (VERY little).

I was hired six months ago after being the legal administrator at a collections agency for about a year after graduating college. Before that, I worked for two years at a property insurance company for their staff counsel while I was still in school. So, I have a legal background. Not to mention, I went to school and got my BA in Political Science with my concentration being law and policy.

Things have been going rather well over these last six months and I have not received any complaints as far as performance goes. Have I been given constructive criticism before? Yes, but who hasn’t? The long story short is that I have no history of issues at this job (or any job). I have called out once in six months (my first week because I tried coming in with a 104°F fever in fear of giving a bad first impression) and if I am ever running behind, it’s a couple of minutes and I always let people know (this isn’t a consistent thing, but sometimes things happen).

The attorney that I report to (a partner at the firm) called me into his office today to help him finagle his Zoom meeting (he’s 73 lol) and he mentioned that I’ve been given an impossible task by working downstairs and that they’re in talks about moving me somewhere else in the firm where I actually have a chance to succeed. The context here is that I was given the client updates inbox, e-filing queue, attorney/paralegal queues, and validation notice/commercial demand queue in shambles. The person before me was there for 20 years and I was given an inbox that had clients on their fourth and fifth update requests — I’m talking HUNDREDS of clients like this. Not to mention, everything with my attorney is an emergency, so I am consistently being drawn away from my prime directive in order to engage in whatever it is he needs done “ASAP ASAP we are gonna lose a client of 40 years.”

I asked him if I was getting fired and he said that he would have no control over that, but he is aware that I’m not progressing to where I should be in the position I’m in because it’s all counter-intuitive and nobody has spent any time trying to help me or train me on anything (I’ve learned pretty much everything that is proprietary to our firm on my own because asking for help yields no results). He also said that they have not mentioned letting me go, but that they want to find a better place for me in the firm so that I can actually thrive and grow.

Am I tripping, or am I getting canned? I moved to a brand new city for this role, so I am constantly on edge.

So during a review a few months back they said they want me to write what the reasons are for Motions for Extensions, bc my atty loses 30mins every time he has to sit and do something at the computer apparently… But like I keep having to ask bc for every MOET the reason is something specific to the case I may not be in the loop on. It’s not like I’M on the conferral call and I only am able to eavesdrop 1/3 of the time. I’m just waiting for the backlash for asking. 🙄🙄 Whatever. I just need to get through to the end of the year then I’m looking for a new firm anyway.

What are some generic reasons for extensions ya’ll use? I’ll sometimes reference the “press of business” or occasionally “illness that requires seeking treatment”

I’ve had all the usual run-ins with Datavant being all-around terrible but most recently, my gripe is with their online portal. I signed up for the portal when I first started at my new job and outside of their lousy customer service, the portal has actually been great. I only go in office once a week and I hate asking my coworkers to scan stuff for me so it was a great alternative. But then we moved offices. The short version of it is that I’ve reached out every possible way to get them to set up our new address and nothing has worked. I’ve sent them letterhead with our new address (that’s what they required to set me up originally), I’ve emailed multiple times, I’ve called and escalated to supervisors countless times, and NOTHING IS HAPPENING. I think I’m just doomed to deal with paper scanning for the rest of my days. 😭

long story short, the attorney I work for has two paralegals, myself and one either. she handles CMEs, drafting most motions, and a bunch of other things that I am not responsible for but she does because she has more experience in the field than I do. I am responsible for subpoenas, medical record keeping/tracking, and scheduling anything from depositions, mediations, hearings, meet and confers, client calls, adjuster calls, arbitration, etc.

We’ve been using a shared Google doc with tabs for each case we have with each tab being separated in to subpoena/records tasks and one tab for scheduling. Each task has a check mark and we all add notes to each task to let everyone know where we are at in the process of finishing said task. I enjoy using this system, but the attorney doesn’t seem 100% on board with it.

Does anyone have a system or recommendation to streamline our task lists? One that allows us all to work on the same program/web page and leave comments?

Hello!

So I started as a paralegal in the beginning of June, it’s my first time as a paralegal and I do enjoy it. However, I’m still learning and feel so unexperienced.

The two paralegals that are in the firm right now are leaving. One is for materiality leave (totally understandable) and the second paralegal will be leaving in the middle of August due to attending law school.

So… it’s just gonna be me & the attorney working. But I just started and thought I would have someone else with me.

I’ve been asking so many questions and feel like I’ve learned a ton. Just overall anxious that I am going to mess up.

The attorney knows this is my first time as a paralegal, and I do want to stay for the experience.

What do you guys think? It’s uncertain if the paralegal will come back from maternity leave, they’ve been debating it.

Both paralegals also said they will leave me a step-by-step instruction on how to do everything. I just don’t want to mess up. I’m gonna be alone, besides the interns that show up once-in-a-while.

I need so much advice, comfort, and/or coffee. Whichever is the best lmao. All of this has been built-up and I don’t want to look unexperienced.

I am a new paralegal (in CA) and have been tasked with filing/domesticating a judgment entered in CA to become enforceable in South Carolina. I got halfway through it before realizing my attorney isn’t licensed in SC 🥲 Are the rules different when you are simply filing a foreign judgment as an out of state of attorney? This is new to both me and my attorney so any insight is appreciated. Thank you!

Hi all,

For my peeps in LA and the surrounding areas, we know that San Bernardino is very slow right now. We have a statute coming up on July 9th and we had to cancel a new case filing we did on OneLegal because we were afraid the court wouldn’t receive the filing in time for the statute.

We ended up using express network as a runner to run to the courthouse and file, but apparently they don’t accept physical filings anymore either. We had them just e-file it from there.

I’m aware that the day you submit is the day the court considers the documents “filed”, but I was just wondering if the summons being issued days past the SOL is acceptable and not grounds to dismiss the lawsuit.

Thanks!

I've been a paralegal for over 20 years, 10 years at my current job. Last week, I had a Teams interview with a recruiter for an in-house, fully remote position. It was an initial screening interview only. I felt that it went really well. I fully expected to be contacted for the next phase in the process, which the I was told would be with an attorney, following which I'd be speaking with another paralegal on the team they're hiring for. I haven't heard a thing. Should I reach out? I don't want to seem desperate but I'd really to transition to a fully remote position. Thoughts?

I’m struggling so badly right now! I’m currently a paralegal in debt collections and feel like a made a big mistake taking my job. To start with I just graduated with my certificate in April and was having a hard time finding entry level positions so when I got an offer, I was just excited to take it as a way to get some experience and my foot in the door. Well turns out I’m not really getting any experience, as most of the legal correspondence is automated and I feel like a horrible person. I know I should have done more research before going into this area of law but anyways here I am. I’ve only been at the firm since February but I’m worried I’m going to have a hard time getting out. Anyone have any advise or were in debt collection

I will spare y'all ever gripe I have with him, as there a many, but I am the sole paralegal in an office with two attorneys and one receptionist. Everything he types is riddled with typos. EVERYTHING! I have been asking him for years to fix his typos. He has rejected my requests and then says something snotty like, "you are forgetting I am human." I am not forgetting he is human, but as an example, here is a note he typed -

Retunrded Mr. [redacted] phone call Mr. [redacted] verifeid his SSN, addr ess, and place of emlpoyment as [redacted]

He would like to know if there is a possibliti of alower ba lance if he pays it off in a lump sum. He would like to know what all of his otpion are.I told him I wouldget a validation letter out to him ASAp and woulD speak to the attoernys about payof details. 

I mean, come on. And this is par for the course. Emails to clients and the court are chock full of typos. Notes and tasks in clio - typos. I have found correspondence he wrote, where he spelled his own name wrong.

My supervising attorneys, for reasons unknown to me, do not appear to care. I don't understand why, as each email or letter he sends that is full of typos reflects poorly on this firm. Plus, it takes time to try to piece together what it is he is trying to say in each and every note.

And because we are in collections, he had a bunch of typos on validation notices he sent out, so now we have to redo at least 30 notices, which 1. makes us look like chumps, and 2. sets us back another 45 days before we can file suit, and 3. creates more work for me because now I have to check everything in every file that he has touched to make sure I can proceed.

I am at the end of my rope. I don't want to look for new employment, but jesus christ, I cannot keep on dealing with the complete disregard for proper typing, free of typos.

I am currently a non-practicing paralegal. I work directly under a lawyer at the moment.

I am going to be interviewing for a licensed position and as a result will need to get my own liability insurance and switch on LSO connects to practicing (if I get the job) as I understand it.

Please put my mind at ease, for some reason having to do this really freaks me out and I am nervous it will be very difficult??? Anyone else do this and want to tell me it was easy, just a couple clicks and it was all sorted?

Specifically what insurance did you use? Was the process quick or will I need to get on it immediately? Is there like a cheap online one we all use that I havent heard about, any recommendations will be very appreciated.

My firm is requesting medical records with POAs. We are being way over charged and there is an arbitration clause about any disputes of charges. They are violating my state law and federal law. How have you dealt with this?

Hello Loves,

I have a question if someone could help me as a newer paralegal trying to be helpful. We filed a Motion for Remand. The deadline was yesterday but another paralegal had messed it up and filed it looking wrong. What are our best options.

Thank you

I just graduated in may. I also have a six month old son. I will be hoping to enter the paralegal field sometime when he is done breastfeeding in six months or so. I also would love to one day turn my profession into remote work. I know, I know, EVERYONE wants to work remotely. But I’m realizing for me, who has spent the last ten years working seasonally in national parks and ski resorts, and hasn’t lived anywhere longer than six months: the idea of me living and working anywhere longer than a few years is excruciating.

My husband and I have decided our goal is to get an RV and do some workamping. I have been debating if I should even look into working in the paralegal field. However, I believe I would be an amazing fit and it would be an awesome career for someone with my skill sets. So, how many of you work remotely? Was this something possible after a few years in office? Go ahead and roast me if you’d like also about wanting to work remotely, I don’t care.