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Today we celebrate St. Louis Legal Assistant Day and salute the Paralegal Profession. The National Association of Legal Assistants reports that the paralegal profession began in the 1960's. (1) I disagree. There must have been paralegals long before the 1960's -- how else do you explain some of the important moments in history? I don't doubt, for example, that a Thirteenth Century English paralegal attended King John. The paralegal warned the king about his idea to meet the irritated bishops and lords in the peaceful, bucolic setting of Runneymede. The King had in mind to quiet the noblemen's discontent, but the paralegal, forseeing the inevitable, brought along the quill and ink for the King to sign the Magna Carta. I also suspect paralegals have been around as long as there have been land transactions. If not for the paralegal's checking the survey for Thomas Jefferson, no one would have discovered the metes and bounds error that would have left Missouri out of the Louisiana Purchase. But my real topic is TODAY'S paralegals. Today's paralegals are organized, educated, and technologically savvy. A recent Paralegal Technology Survey in Law Office Computing shows that 88% of the paralegals responding had access to the Internet and 47% used if for legal research. Paralegals also frequently make the technology purchase decisions in the office, like arranging for high-speed internet access through Digital Subscriber Lines. Many have been helped by BAMSL's CLE materials "Speedy Surfing" provides a roadmap. Not only have paralegals mastered the software which makes a law office run smoothly, they have become knowledge managers through effective use of the Internet. Technologically savvy paralegals are aware of LEGAL PORTALS such as FindLaw and excellent links pages like the National Law Journal's Web Directory Page. Other link pages include: Links from the National Federation of Paralegal Associations include Legal Resources and NFPA's Guide To Resources. Paralegals also know that not all relevant materials can be found by using a search engine and they either know, or will want to know about the "Hidden Web of Databases"-- Database Search Tech-paralegals know that by monitoring the DAILY NEWS BULLETINS from Law News Network, Findlaw, and Missouri Lawyers Weekly, they can find the latest breaking cases which may impact a case they are working on currently. In fact, through such daily news bulletins, they may have discovered a free site providing full text state and federal cases in an easy to use format at Jurisline.com. Better go to that one soon, however, because the site's founders' use of Lexis CD-ROM library to build its site has spawned, what else but litigation. An article appearing in Onlineinc.com explains. Paralegals often join LAW-LISTS to exchange information with other legal professionals and to search the archives of previous discussions. Examples are Law Lists at Netlawyers, Technolawyer, and Paralegals. For a full list check out Lyonette's Law-Lists. BAMSL maintains its own practice-oriented lists. You can subscribe to them through BAMSL's site. And, speaking of BAMSL, did you know the issue of the St. Louis Bar Journal devoted entirely to paralegals is online at BAMSL? A paralegal by the name of Peggie Brown (well known as Katsuey Kat to legal web searchers) founded and maintains another excellent starting point: Katsuey's Legal Gateway. Peggie recently addressed the Rutgers University Law School and through the magic of email, has permitted me to show her insights about Changes in Legal Research. Now let's now look at some examples of how paralegals (and occasionally their lawyers) have solved actual problems in the law office by using the Internet. Overworked (as usual) and unable to get to a library a paralegal in a probate estates practice turned to the internet for help in getting the information necessary to complete the estate's inventory and federal tax forms. Kelley's Blue Book online listed automobile values. She found the assessed value of real property in St. Louis County and in St. Charles County at the assessors' information online. To obtain the IRS Form 706 (Estate Tax Return) she went to the IRS site. Having the information already compiled, she used the "fill in" option at the web site (downloaded using Adobe Acrobat Reader) to fill out the form on the computer (eliminating the need for a typewriter). Stock prices as of date of death were no problem. She obtained the ticker symbols at Quicken.com . She went to Bigcharts.com for historical quotes. She knew, however, that the safest service to use when accuracy is important is the Center for Research in Securities Pricing, a subscription based service from the University of Chicago Business Schools. Another paralegal was working on an appellate brief at home. It was too late to go to the library and he wanted to jump-start his work for the next day. At home, he used his computer to access the ABC's of Appellate Practice, published by the Missouri Appellate Court, Eastern District and rules on the web at Court Rules Central. He perused various articles posted to the web, such as the articles on Missouri and federal appeals at the SoLaw.com web site. He new that for the next federal appeal he could access the United States Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals Practitioner's Handbook For Appeals to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit and opinions at the Eighth Circuit site. He noticed that both the Missouri Judiciary web page and the web page for the U. S. Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals had been newly designed to be more user friendly. And, of particular relevance, the Missouri site has a new service called Case.net, providing information about the case status and participants in cases currently pending before the Court (not yet for all courts). He even looked up how the judges on the panel have ruled in like cases by using the subscription-based archive search of Missouri Lawyers Weekly. Something was gnawing at the litigation paralegal in the criminal case. She visited her usual "fist stop" web site, TalkJustice but something still nagged at her. She knew the main witness against the firm's client, on trial for murder, claimed to have seen the client murder the victim at night, under the light of a full moon. Had she seen this on Perry Mason, or was it an historical case? Her supervisory attorney told her that she thought Abraham Lincoln had been involved in a similar case in the 1840's. The paralegal dove to the internet finding the incident in Compton's Encyclopedia, though she could as easily have used the Encyclopedia Britannica, now online also. The entry read: "Lincoln's most famous case, perhaps, was his victorious defense of " Duff" Armstrong, who was accused of murder. Duff was the son of Jack Armstrong, Lincoln's old wrestling foe. The accusing witness said he had seen Duff bludgeon and kill a man with a "slung shot" one night in the "bright moonlight." Lincoln opened an almanac and showed it recorded that the moon on that night had set long before the scuffle." Of course, it's the almanac! She accessed the Farmer's Almanac online and hypertext linked from there to the U.S. Naval Observatory's Astronomical Applications Department and found that, just as in Lincoln's case, on the night in question there was no moon visible! Client acquitted. A copyright paralegal knows of the many government sources on the web, but might not know that another Paralegal, Peggie Brown, updates her site with late breaking issues at Katsuey's Legal Gateway. That site gives a quick summary and links to the latest stories in intellectual property news. Monitoring this type of service would provide a legal professional with the most up to date information right up to seconds before a trial. Other, terrific resources are listed at Katsuey's Legal Gateway, under the "Intellectual Property" category for the legal professional that needs a primer on Copyrights, Patents and/or Trademarks. The latest issue of GPSOLO Magazine (April/May, 2000; ABA) is devoted to protecting intellectual property. Look for it soon at the GP and Solo Magazine web site. Copyright paralegals please take note of another little known fact about paralegals: In 1982, Bill Gates had just developed a new operating system and was going to call it "The Apple of Your Eye." The paralegal sat in on the meeting between Gates and his copyright lawyer. The paralegal mused that the new operating system seemed to do everything she needed. "Heck," she said, "it does everything but wash my windows!" As thanks for the new name, Bill told the paralegal about Microsoft's plans for an IPO. The paralegal invested, cashed out in January, and retired to a life of sun and fun in Belize. Could the next techlottery winner be you? The Elderlaw/Retirement paralegal constantly visits Social Security on line. The Cumulative list of Case Decisions for Social Security Rulings is a frequent stop, and so is the site linking to benefit information publications. In addition, the paralegal visits the National Association of Social Security Claimants' Representatives. In civil litigation, particularly a practice dealing with collections and Bankruptcy, the internet resources include highly effective places to find information about individuals and companies: "white pages" and "yellow pages". These frequently solve the problem of finding the address of an employer by using the phone number, or a name. Likewise, if summons comes back indicating a bad address, the defendant can often be located in the "white pages." Often a creditor in a bankruptcy has moved or merged, and a web search will find a home page which has clarified the status of the bank or S&L, and given me an address. Others paralegals find many of the diverse gems on the web, including: Legal Forms, Insurance issues, Employment law, finding Jobs, Family Law, medical (many legal practitioners end up with medical issues being a part of their case and Grateful Med can lead them through the maze of medical terminology). There are scholarly (and not so scholarly) articles by, for and about paralegals: Here is a sampling: Tips from the trenches. Tips from Legal Assistant Today Readers What Paralegals do and lawyers shouldn't. Capacities and Capabilities of Paralegals I am sure each paralegal here has a story to relate. I'd love to hear them. Please write me at cgilsinan@solaw.com and I will include the most interesting on this page. For the supervisory attorneys attending, you might want to know "What makes Paralegals Happy?" You can find out at the article in Legal Assistant Today entitled Tips for law firms Whew! That's a lot of information for paralegals to retain, isn't it? Luckily, tricks of their trade include bookmarks and sofware programs for organizing them such as PowerMarks by Kaylon. Paralegals have come a long way from the 1960's. But I STILL harbor the suspicion that paralegals MUST have been around at previous times in history. I would not surprise me a bit if a paralegal assisted in the preparation of the Declaration of Independence. Unfortunately, she must have been sick on the day the it was printed. Why else would there be such a blatant error: Of course it should have read "All WOmen are created equal." |