I work remotely as a paralegal. It’s a different area of law that I had not worked in before which is fine and at first I thought they were a nice firm and everyone is truly pretty nice but it’s a there’s huge misunderstandings, cases piled up, the previous paralegal left a lot of work undone. I am getting extremely overwhelmed and getting different instructions from everyone, they only pay me $24 an hour for California! I took this job cause I was desperate for money. I literally am crying today because of like an email the manager sent me. I don’t know what to do. My husband is like please don’t quit but I like cannot do this. i’m so close to just being like you know what this is not a good fit for me and I don’t get paid enough and like just put in my notice, I have so much debt. I just wanted this job to pay it off, but I’m like man should I just declare bankruptcy…ughhhhh.

This is mostly just a rant but I feel like I’m not cut out for corporate law or corporate culture, at least not as a paralegal. I just got a talking to about not being formal enough in my email. I always use complete sentences and correct punctuation, and a generally formal-ish tone but apparently telling a client “No worries” and using exclamation marks is not good for our image. My attorney is AI-brained so I think he almost likes the AI voice but at that point whats the purpose of me being the one communicating with clients? Maybe I’m overrreacting but it’s such a dumb nitpick and I have enough things to do without spending an extra 15 minutes stressing over my syntax on every email.

So it’s my third week at my office, and I can tell the paralegal training me thinks I’m incompetent because he’ll have me a draft a document that I haven’t drafted before and he’ll find mistakes with the formatting or maybe a few s’s where they shouldn’t be and he will be extremely upset with me. I am going through changes with my medications, so my adderall isn’t even working which I’ve explained. It just sucks going to ask him questions, because he’ll always emphasize ‘oh this should be common sense’ and it’s hard to talk to him. Today he noticed that when efiling into this one existing case I forgot to change the part where I’m supposed to change the attorney’s party from ‘other’ to ‘plaintiff’ — I didn’t notice this because I didn’t think I’d have to look out for this since everyone else’s name is already added to the party they’re on. Plus, the court had accepted the other filings where I had made the same mistake. He basically told me that he’s not going to let me efile anymore, and I’m pretty sure he’s going to try to get me moved from litigation to just case management. It just sucks because this is really everything I’ve worked hard for and I really enjoy the drafting of documents and all that tedious work. I feel like it’s my dream job in every sense, but for some reason, no matter how closely I scrutinize a document I may miss an s or something

Hello everyone! This is my first post on here.

Basically at work I draft documents and today I noticed that for General Warranty deeds with a vendors lien I’ve been making a very small mistake.

For Grantee line where I input the buyers names it looks like this “Grantee: :” there is no need for the extra “:” and I’m kinda freaking out I know this is super small but I’ve only been working this job for two months and have made another minor mistake as well. None of the customers requesting these deeds have noticed so I suppose it’s not a big deal.

Have any of you working in estate law made tiny mistakes ? Also would I get fired for this lol!

I started working for a family law firm a few months ago as a legal assistant after the previous guy quit. This is my first position in the law field, but I have worked desk jobs similar in nature for about 7 years. I just needed a fresh start, and law had always interested me, but I am starting to get cold feet and I wanted a sanity check before I take my next steps.
Its a small family office with 3 attorneys, a paralegal, and 3 "clerks" (including myself), but the tasking is divided a little oddly to me. Among the clerks, one is my supervisor; she does more of the advanced stuff, like preparing documents for trial, or preparing claims to be filed. The other clerk is pretty incompetent. She is in her 60s and not tech savvy in the slightest, and has apparently messed things up in a big way before so she does not have access to our Tabs system. Her workload includes sending out our emails (about 20 a day), preparing physical mail to be sent, and filing papers. Since she does not understand technology, she is very, VERY slow when drafting emails so a singular email can take her about 10 minutes. I guess it wasn't a problem when she was hired, but covid forced the office to start doing most things electronically (😵‍💫) and she has just never learned.
I do everything else. I am the sole monitor of our email box, and my boss expects every email to be physically printed and distributed to whoever is handling the client. I must also scan in any documents into our system, which is on a separate computer network because my boss is paranoid of hackers, and then distribute a copy to the paralegal who reviews attachments as well as the attorney on the case. I also monitor the status of all of our medical records requests; we have about 60-70 active clients and receive on average 2 new clients a week, so every time we request records for them I am the only one who has to retrieve, note the cost, scan them in, and distribute to the para. I handle all of our invoices, retrieve the court documents once stamped by the judge, call clients to ensure they do not miss medical appointments, and I am the sole manager of the firm's calendar. Everyone can view it, but only I can edit, so everyone calls me when something needs to be added or changed. I am also expected to send out emails like my coworker does, but they typically go to her first.
Additionally, I am the youngest in the office. The closest in age is my boss's youngest son who is 20 years my senior, and everyone else in the office is about late 50s-70s. So if there is a technical difficulty, one of them cant figure out how to do a certain thing, or something breaks, I am the first person they interrupt to get help.
I am struggling keeping up with it all. I keep thinking I have learned how to balance it all and then I miss this or that, or I get behind because I had a task one day that took a long time. I have never had this problem at my other jobs; I have worked fast pace desk jobs before, and I have never been fired or regarded as a bad worker but I am starting to feel like that perception of me is going to take shape here but I am afraid to speak up about how I feel. My boss is very stubborn and prefers to do things the way its always been done. They have burned through 5 clerks in 2 years, each one averaging around 6 months before they leave.
I am kind of at my wit's end. I feel like I am getting blasted with a firehose every day, and I only have a water bottle to catch the onslaught. Is this normal? I am asking before I try the job hunt again.... it was so hard just to land this one, and I am scared I am going to be stuck here or fired because I missed one thing or the other.

before the senior paralegal left for vacation I noticed they were taking meetings with the attorneys more privately in separate conference rooms. I felt nervous and like maybe these would be about me. they were about me because they told me after that the attorney wants them to show me how to file something while they’re away

later in that specific day in the conference room beside me the senior paralegal met with two attorneys and told them that they tells me step by step how to die things when I ask. that’s true and I can’t be annoyed but I am embarrassed because it makes me feel incompetent

later that day I got assigned medical records which are a step back from the tasks I’ve been working on. I feel like now they view me as incompetent. I don’t blame the senior paralegal for telling them that though, just feel discouraged

i got a new job offer but I’m worried it would be hard for me there too. But I saw on LinkedIn lots of people who are paralegals and legal assistants had no prior work experience and had been there for years

Has anyone dealt with a Private Equity MSO buying their firm & if so how did this affect the staff (paralegals/legal assistants)?

State Farm changed their process where you can only report claims online. Online it wouldn’t let me, I got halfway through and it prompted me to call. When I call the number, the rudest lady I’ve ever spoken to was like yeah I’m not sure what to tell you, call the help desk… WHAT. I don’t even have time to report this claim, I definitely don’t have time to ask the State Farm help desk?!?

This is insanity and I needed to vent.

what is the day to day like for these types of paralegals? what are the best and worst parts of it? how is the work life balance?

if someone doesn’t like personal injury would they like this field better or worse?

is it more or less stressful than personal injury and medical malpractice work?

I’ve shared here before my terrible nightmare working with nepobaby and after getting yelled at by him things haven’t been the same. My role being reduced to just reception and carpet cleaning. I really have been wanting to quit and was worried about finding a job so soon after being here for 6 months.

I interviewed at this firm last week and was offered job on the spot. Now many would say that’s a red flag.. but I had 3 interviews for the crappy job where I’m at! I am getting more $ than what I asked for plus remote work. My commute time is also shortened.

I’m 19 with now 3 Paralegal certificates and I finally got someone who took me seriously enough to interview me!!

My paralegal professor (very well known retired lawyer locally) highly recommended me to the lawyer hiring. The pay is $14 an hour (i live in a poverty-ish country and that’s one of the highest pays i’ve seen. some have the audacity to put $10.50 an hour).

The interview is in 4 days and I need advice!! I already made a 5-page long guide questions of possible questions that the lawyer will ask and approximately 4 questions I will ask him.

I work as a legal assistant a small firm with 4 attorneys and 5 support staff and the phone literally rings NONSTOP!!! We have a TWO receptionists who’s only job are to handle the phones and intakes because it’s so insane!! Sometimes we’re getting 15+ calls an hour it’s never ending!! It feels like I work in a call center because the phone just rings almost all day!

And the best part is that if they’re both in a call then it’s on me to pick up if a third person calls us!!! This happens all the time and it can eat up an hour of my day at times and I’m the third string receptionist. Why does the phone just ring nonstop!! I don’t have time for that when I’m handling an average of 60-80 cases.

And for context I make 22 an hour in a VHCOL area.

has anyone done personal injury and workers compensation on both plaintiff and defense side? which is easier? are the medical records terrible on both sides or only plaintiff side

Hi! I’m in the beginning of wanting to unionize my workplace. I reached out to ALAA back in June or even before that, May, and they have been ghost after I double texted them.

I am one to believe in not chasing or pursuing/forcing anything, so I haven’t reached out since.

has anyone had experiences with ALAA or other unions ghosting or not taking organizing seriously ?

Has anyone else experienced a significant increase in difficulty filing/ receiving filing evidence since the Division of Corporations stopped accepting fax submissions? I have several I haven’t received filing evidence for despite having proof of submission and showing said proof. Feels like I’m going crazy sometimes. 🙄

Hi everyone! Fellow lurker here.

I just got my paralegal license (Ontario, Canada) a couple months ago and have pretty much given up on finding any work in the legal field (actually graduated from the paralegal program in 2024). For almost two years now I have applied to countless paralegal/paralegal adjacent jobs and even offered volunteering, which most firms don't care for because they already have field placement and articling students year round. It seems everyone wants someone with 3 or 5 plus years of experience, even for supposed "junior" or "entry level" positions.

I'm also a Registered Social Service Worker and have been applying for jobs in the social service/non profit fields as well (which I actually have experience in). I of course have different versions of my resume for each field, whether it be legal, social services, and even retail/food services so I don't come off as overqualified by shoving everything into one.

I don't mean to complain, I just started working at Walmart as an online grocery shopper to help make ends meet and pay off my student loans, debt, bills, etc.

I just really don't know what to and feel completely defeated. I guess this is more of a rant, but any advice or even just words of support are greatly appreciated.

Hi all. I work in fintech compliance and legal support, mostly AML/CFT, KYC/KYB, enhanced due diligence, regulatory research, and drafting compliance policies. I'm looking to pick up remote contract work right now, including paralegal-level and document-heavy compliance projects.

My background is in fintech and legaltech. I've supported a North American firm on corporate and compliance matters, and before that I built out the compliance function for a fintech company from scratch, so I'm very comfortable with high-volume due diligence, entity work, and keeping documentation clean and audit-ready.

I'm open to ongoing or one-off projects, fully remote and flexible across time zones. If your team or firm ever needs an extra set of hands on compliance or DD work, I'd love to connect. Happy to share more about what I've worked on.

I am a baby PI paralegal (i started 2 months ago) and I am looking for any sort of advice I can get to be as effective as possible while maintaining a work life balance. For context, I manage around 32 cases ranging from foster case negligence and TVPRA litigation to car accidents and dog bites. I work for a solo attorney who is very chill, but I definitely am feeling the pressure when it comes to always having something to work on and learning to prioritize. I am a new grad with work experience but no legal experience so this world is very new to
me. Any advice, especially oriented to PI, is helpful.

Current Highline college paralegal student, looking for the best sites, places and tactics to get internships. I also want to ask if it is worth it to join WSPA or NALA (only because I am very broke so unfortunately at the moment 50 bucks is a lot for me right now) Edit: previous to going back to school was in cannabis industry for 10 years with a lot of focus on legal compliance

i just got let go of my first paralegal job ever. coming up on five years, my boss claimed he cannot afford to pay me a full time salary and offered a 50% pay cut to do the same amount of work. he gave me no less than 24 hours to accept or decline this. he told me he has no complaints of my work quality and hopes to keep me, but of course i felt completely blindsided and incredibly disrespected considering he essentially told me he hired new girls and can’t afford to pay me (mind you i was making no more than 40k)

granted it is a boutique firm but it felt like a huge slap in the face saying he’s been contemplating this for months and only gave me less than a days notice. my rebuttal was that if i accept such a drastic cut, i must remove some of the roles i was given to balance out the loss. nope! according to him, my workload was worth no more than 20 hours.

i knew that fighting back would eventually cost me my job but i simply had too much pride to accept such a dehumanizing offer. i really loved this job and the flexibility but i can’t help but feel some sense of sadness. part of me feels like i overstayed my welcome there and another part of me feels like the rug was ripped out from under me.

i know i wasn’t technically “fired”, but i certainly did not quit. he thanked me for my time at the firm and offered to be a source of rec for any future employer. i’ve been applying to every paralegal job under the sun but no dice so far. i’m at a crossroads wondering if i should even continue to pursue a legal path. i genuinely feel so lost im not even sure what this post is for but i guess i just don’t know where to go from here. it would’ve been nice to have some time to figure out where to go next but he didn’t even have the decency to give me ample time after all the years i dedicated to the firm. just fired on the spot. ugh.

I recently got my legal assistant certification and have been on the job hunt for the past month. I live in portland oregon so the job market isn’t that great, but it’s been so rough trying to find a firm that’ll take me with just a certificate and little to no experience. I can’t even find any internships! anyone have any tips or ideas where i can start? TIA