Starting Out In The Legal Field? 4 Things That Will Help You Avoid Problems With Your Case Files
When you were in law school, you were busy learning all the rules and memorizing as much case law as your brain would hold. Now that you've graduated law school, and you're working in a real law office, it's likely that you're having a hard time remembering anything you learned in law school. That's okay. It will come back to you once the shock wears off. In the mean time, there are some things you need to know right out of the gate. Some of the information you'll need to know will involve your case files. That's because you'll be working with those files a lot in your first few years. You'll be doing research and writing case briefs for your lead attorney. If your files aren't in order, the mess will fall back on you. To help you avoid the mess, here are four things you'll need to know about your case files.
Know Where Your Case Files Are
This one may seem like a no-brainer, but there will be times when the office gets swamped, and you're called away from whatever task you're doing at the time. In those moments, you may walk away from the most important thing in the office; the case file you're working on. When you're first starting out as an attorney, it's crucial that you know where your case files are at all times, especially the ones you're working on.
Keep Your Case Files Organized
When you're working in a busy office, it can be easy cut corners on your tasks. One task that you can't cut corners on involves your case file organization. You've got to keep those case files organized. You'll learn that there are specific places for everything that goes inside the files. If they're not organized in the right order, problems can arise quite quickly. To avoid those problems, always keep your case files organized.
Keep Documents Inside Those File Jackets
When you're working on a case, you may need to take documents out of the file. However, as soon as you're done, you need to put them right back in their proper place. It's also important that you place new documents in the proper files as soon as you receive them. Leaving legal documents out in the open can lead to lose, as well as privacy issues. Always keep your legal documents safely inside the file jackets.
Know When You Need a New Case File Jacket
During those first few years in the office, when you're learning the ropes, you'll be spending a lot of time with the case files. In most cases, it will be up to you to keep track of the growing girth of each file. If you're working on a case, and the file jacket is stretching past its capacity, it will be up to you to know when it's time for a new one. Once you've started a new case file jacket, make sure you keep all of them together.
Contact a service, like American Legal Forms, for more help.
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