Carolina Paralegal News Paralegal news for North and South Carolina

The first step in any journey or project is to identify what you want to accomplish. Your mind is an amazing thing that will move you unconsciously toward whatever future you believe to be real. You can’t start to address what is real until you have some idea what you are talking about. This is true for your law firm, your job and your life.

Tagged with: Goals

It should have been an easy strike. The Foley & Lardner attorney with tasseled loafers and a sport coat with elbow patches screamed conservative, said personal injury plaintiff’s lawyer Paul Scoptur, and that was the type of person he didn’t want on his jury in a minor brain injury case. But Scoptur’s wife, an attorney who was taking notes during jury selection for the 2005 case, persuaded him to keep the Foley lawyer on the jury.

Tagged with: Jurors

Instructors said they thrive on sharing their professional passions and experience; the intellectual challenge of staying up to date in practice areas; and engaging with students and colleagues. The extra income is nice, too. But prospective teachers also should consider the less appealing aspects, instructors cautioned.

Tagged with: Instructing

Attorneys who teach paralegal courses have the ability to apply for continuing legal education credit, but a vague Wisconsin Supreme Court rule has discouraged any from trying.

Tagged with: CLE

espite its sometime negative connotations, document review work is in demand now more than ever as firms grapple with an increase in litigation that has followed the economic downturn. All of the materials that are part of filing a lawsuit require some review.

Tagged with: Document review

A recent Oregon Court of Appeals case highlights the trouble that employers may encounter if they don’t deal with issues related to stalking at the workplace.

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Read the November 2011 issue of Carolina Paralegal News online. Click here

Faced with layoffs, freelance paralegals reinvent themselves as business owners By Amy Burroughs When Tina Marie Hilton was laid off from her paralegal job in 2007, she hit the job market for a new position. But after fruitless searching, it ...

By David Baugher, Dolan Media Newswires ST. LOUIS, MO — How do you save your firm money? What tips can you share with others? Solo and small-firm lawyers across Missouri answered the call. Here you’ll find 25 nuggets of wisdom ...

By Sylvia Hsieh, Dolan Media Newswires BOSTON, MA — Some law firm marketing gurus are going gaga over Google+, the latest social media platform. Though it’s only been out for about four months, Google+ is already generating a heated debate ...

Tagged with: Google+

The stakes are about to get higher for individuals engaging in the unauthorized practice of law (UPL) in North Carolina. A new law taking effect Oct. 1 will empower individuals harmed by UPL to bring a private cause of action against a defendant. Criminal penalties already are in place: In South Carolina, a UPL violation constitutes a felony, while in North Carolina it’s a Class I misdemeanor. But the added layer of personal liability makes this a good time for paralegals to safeguard themselves against common pitfalls that can lead to UPL.

More than a dozen State Bar of Wisconsin members are seeking permission from the state’s highest court to earn Continuing Legal Education credit for teaching a legal specialty course in a paralegal program. Attorney Richard Opie, coordinator of the paralegal program at Lakeshore Technical College in Cleveland, Wis., filed a rules petition on July 28 to amend Supreme Court Rule 31.05(3) to expand the authority of the Board of Bar Examiners to award CLE credit.

ST. LOUIS, MO — As the lead smelter’s gray smokestack towers above her, Brenda Browning walks toward a grassy hollow next to the low-slung Herculaneum City Hall building. A paved driveway leads to nowhere. Two white clothesline posts stand absently nearby. This used to be her home. Now, like the plaintiffs who achieved a stunning court victory against the corporations running the smelter, she lives someplace else, her lead-tainted home abandoned and eventually razed.

Nell Romanosky doesn’t have an email account, and she still types on her trusty IBM Selectric. At 83, she remembers being shocked when women exchanged their skirts to wear pantsuits to the office. And she favors Bing Crosby over “modern-day music.” “Hip-hop and that kind of stuff – I don’t care for that at all,” she said. Romanosky’s tastes may linger in the past, but she has a unique treasure that escapes members of the younger set – first-hand knowledge of an important historical era in Charleston’s legal community.

For young children whose families are tied up in court hearings, sometimes nothing is more comforting than playing with other kids or crawling into a small, safe space. In the Multnomah County Courthouse, in downtown Portland, children who may otherwise have to attend hearings can find respite in a former jury room that the Multnomah Bar Association converted into a free, drop-in child care center run by Volunteers of America.