Work SMARTER...
Not HARDER
Hours: Monday through Friday 8AM to 5PM are the general operating hours for a law firm employee. However, attorneys generally work longer hours without the additional resources once their assistants clock out. RPKC paralegal services can provide help during those off hours most of the time, including evening and weekend requests. With the convenience of working remotely, there are no restrictions as there is for a typical 8 hour working employee.
Understaffed Firms: The legal field is growing with a litigious society, creating more opportunities for attorneys and assistants alike. Litigation seems to always have “ebbs and flows” where there are busy times and lull times. Don’t create an atmosphere where you have full time employees unsatisfied and overworked. Instead, allow RPKC help assist on larger or more time consuming projects. This would allow the firm's full time employees to stay focused, as well as preventing an unnecessary expense with a temporary full-time employee.
Overstaffed Firms: Firms can sometimes overstaff themselves by having legal assistants and paralegals fully employed and in charge of the same responsibilities with similar job descriptions. Eliminate the excess costs by adding RPKC rather than paying for too many full-time employees. This allows the firm to grow at a rate they are more comfortable with without additional overhead and overstaffing/bored employees.
Temporary Assistance: Firms occasionally will need temporary assistance for people who go on leave for medical reasons or maternity leave and do not wish to hire a full time/temp paralegal. RPKC can fill those voids on a temporary basis for specific cases that may need further assistance while an employee is out. You won’t have to take the time for training with firm-used programs, go through temporary personnel agencies, or incurring the unreasonable expense of the recruitment fees. When contracting with a virtual paralegal directly, you pay for the services provided, nothing else.
Single Attorney Practices:
Recent law school graduates and even seasoned attorneys are starting their own single attorney practices. Single attorneys and smaller law firms can sometimes find themselves swamped in paperwork, research, costs for startup, costs for legal programs, etc. This creates a difficult situation whereby a paralegal would be incredibly helpful to them, but they are unable to afford the assistance on a full time basis. Being a virtual paralegal, contract/freelance services can be provided on a case-by-case basis, avoiding the cost of a full time employee and employee benefits. Providing services on a case-by-case basis makes it easier to avoid overworking yourself when there is a large case you wish to tackle and additional assistance would be beneficial or required. Also, you avoid paying for additional office computers, space, supplies and fringe benefits that you would likely need to provide to employees.
Small/Large Firms:
Most firms employ at least 1 paralegal and/or 1 legal assistant, as well as a receptionist for fielding phone calls. Hiring a contract/freelance virtual paralegal can help increase the firm's profit while eliminating the need for an abundance of employees. A legal assistant can provide all necessary clerical duties for a firm including physical filing, phone communication and drafting basic letters and pleadings at a reasonable expense, potentially eliminating a need for a receptionist. The job duties that would fall at the hands of a virtual contract paralegal would include drafting/filing pleadings through the electronic filing systems, review discovery prepared and discovery pleadings, be well versed in legal and medical terminology as well as provide basic knowledge for the local state and federal rules and regulations. Specifically, firms require their full-time paralegals to perform time consuming tasks including requesting, organizing, itemizing and creating chronologies for records and drafting deposition summaries. Paralegals for both plaintiff and defense firms spend voluminous hours working on those specific tasks, when they could be putting their skills, knowledge and education to more beneficial services for the firm, including assistance with multiple cases, instead of focusing on a single large and inconvenient task. Outsourcing certain tasks to a virtual paralegal can assist a firm who doesn't currently employ a paralegal as well as assist a firm with retention of a larger clientele with the full-time paralegals/assistants able to handle more without additional time consuming projects.