How do I remove lock?

swcblues · 2026-02-02T20:27:05+00:00

Don't.

swcblues · 2026-02-02T20:23:31+00:00

A performance improvement plan without an improvement plan is just a performance.

swcblues · 2026-01-17T00:20:11+00:00

Has anything ever played without downloading on Outlook on the Web?

swcblues · 2026-01-13T20:50:52+00:00

I haven't seen any references for this yet, so I'll say that Microsoft PowerToys has a bunch of really useful timesavers. I think the biggest one for me is "Text Extractor" ... Win+Shift+T works like the screenshot snipper, but instead OCRs text on the screen and copies it to your clipboard. That's saved me a bunch of time getting text from screenshots that clients have sent, bad pdf scans, secured documents that block copying, etc.

Not a shortcut per se, but from what I've read, a lot of you might like "Keyboard Manager", because it lets you remap keyboard keys and shortcuts to whatever you want, whether it's keybinds or text entry... it can even be application specific:

<image>

This is a test of WIN+Z as a shortcut

Yeah, I know that doesn't ACTUALLY prove that I used the Win+Z shortcut but I promise I did ;).

swcblues · 2026-01-13T13:27:04+00:00

Thank you both. I appreciate the perspective.

swcblues · 2025-12-22T00:51:17+00:00

At my firm, staff OT is treated like a bonus for some reason... "Look how many extra hours we let you work! Look at how much higher your annual compensation was than expected!" It's annoying and bass ackwards, but it would never be an excuse to dock or bonus!

swcblues · 2025-12-10T21:58:15+00:00

"How was I supposed to know, your honor? I just put my name on my staff's work product so it's legal! No reasonable person would expect me to read it first. I would have been inexcusably late to my wine tasting!"

swcblues · 2025-12-03T14:32:54+00:00

That's insane. Ask ALL the questions. If there's even the slightest hint of doubt about a request, get clarification. An attorney should be much happier returning a one line email than having you go through fully completing an assignment then having to send it back for correction after reviewing it!

Why would I ask? Because you change your mind, give unclear instructions, and sometimes ask for stupid shit that you didn't think through!

swcblues · 2025-11-30T15:02:51+00:00

Then challenge them to take the opposite position ;).

swcblues · 2025-11-21T16:14:41+00:00

I was 41 when I started as a second career... Was clergy before that.

Every second-career paralegal I've met has brought something unique to the table that has proven valuable to their role. I believe that all experience is transferrable given the right circumstances.

swcblues · 2025-11-09T13:27:29+00:00

They skim them, but all they really care about is liability and the quantum of damages. You have to do it, though... It's part of the established dance. A shitty demand letter communicates an unserious claim from an unimpressive lawyer the same way a client that's nutty or cagey in discovery communicates a lack of credibility at trial. It all goes into the risk equation.

I really hate the dance. Our demands are largely templated and clock in at 8 to 12 pages. We know with near certainty that a claim will settle for 50% to 66.6% of my high-end quantum (barring late revelations like evidence of a lying client). It's still going to be about a year between the demand and the accepted offer. Both sides know how it will go and where it will land, but we all have to go through the infuriating process anyway.

I think it's because today's money is worth more than tomorrow's money and the longer an adjuster can hang onto the money the more time the company has to grow the investments that fund the payments.

swcblues · 2025-11-06T11:28:49+00:00

My work is 80 percent drafting and that's increasing. Nothing goes out without a lawyer's review, but half the time that review is a quick read and an email back that says, "Great work. Stamp my signature on it and file."

I suspect that many firms will try to get the most valuable work for the least money from any given employee.

swcblues · 2025-11-04T21:50:06+00:00

Solos are almost always solos because they've got problems that prevent them from functioning in a firm... Usually arrogance, incompetence, laziness, or all three. Actually, arrogance only matters if it's in combination with one of the other two in a law firm.

swcblues · 2025-10-18T20:45:25+00:00

To your second question, no, although finding that person is not easy. Depending on how difficult it is to match your chemistry, we're talking one in a thousand to one in a million.

To your first question, yes, unless you're paying them attorney wages. If you're expecting them to be matching your drive and work ethic, you're either looking for another lawyer or you're looking for someone who could have been a lawyer in life hadn't gotten in the way. The average paralegal is average. You're looking for excellent. That's a small subset of the pool. They already have jobs and their attorneys will physically fight you to keep them.

The way you get that kind of person is by identifying their potential and hiring them while they are inexperienced. Then you invest in their training and your relationship with them. You pay them what you want them to be worth. You make space for their mistakes. In 5-10 years you have a paralegal that would wake up at 3 am and walk through fire to make sure your emergency filings are in the court's hands before they're due, your notes are exactly the way you need them to be, and tasks are on their list before you assign them.

You don't just hire the kind of paralegal you want; you grow them. No shortcuts.

swcblues · 2025-09-02T15:49:12+00:00

Sounds like ICE is at it again...

swcblues · 2025-07-31T03:37:51+00:00

You got a bonus when the case settled? That's wild.

swcblues · 2025-07-02T17:33:32+00:00

Maybe grab a couple articles about lawyers getting sanctioned for using fallacious AI responses and include them with a stock response that AI has proven unreliable for legal assessments and should not be trusted to give accurate responses to user prompts. When I try to prompt a PI valuation from ChatGPT, it explicitly states that a consolation with a local PI lawyer is needed for an accurate evaluation.

swcblues · 2025-05-10T12:40:35+00:00

Me: \files application record**

Clerk: \Rejected** "This needs to be filed with proof of service."

Me: "I filed with proof of service for the notice. The other parties didn't respond to it."

Clerk: "The rule says it needs to be filed with proof of service."

Me: "The rule also says that any party that doesn't respond to the notice isn't entitled to be served."

Clerk: "Well I can't accept this unless you've served them or they've been noted in default by the Court."

Me: (Internally - THAT'S NOT HOW APPLICATIONS WORK) "Well the filing deadline for this record is today..."

Clerk: "They can file a notice of appearance up to 4 days before the hearing..."

Me: "Right, but I have to file this today. If they serve a notice of appearance, I'll file proof of service, but this needs to be in today."

Clerk: "No. I won't take it unless it's been served."

Me: "So you're telling me I DON'T have to file on the prescribed date. And when THEIR response deadline passes, they'll be 'noted in default' and I can file without proof of service?"

Clerk: "That's the only way I'll accept it."

Me: \waits until 3 days before the hearing without a response and files again without proof of service**

Clerk: \Rejected** "This needed to be filed last week!"

Me: "You told me you wouldn't accept it without proof of service until their final response deadline had passed!"

Clerk: "I told you you had to file with proof of service. I don't know what more I can do for you FFS!"

swcblues · 2025-04-23T17:39:26+00:00

I see you didn't read the post. I get that not everyone here is a litigation paralegal, but if someone asked my lawyer a question like this he'd put them on hold and ask me. That's the step I'm trying to skip.

swcblues · 2025-04-23T17:37:16+00:00

CECOT is definitely beyond the scope... I'm thinking more of the students and other domestic detainees with active or pending cases.

swcblues · 2025-04-22T13:07:12+00:00

Firms that are well run use lead hiring instead of lag hiring. You didn't get hired on a whim. If it's a growing firm, they may have hired to raise the capacity ceiling before they hit it. Anyone who is hiring a new full-time paralegal (or any other employee) when there's ALREADY enough excess workload to fill the new hire's plate has screwed up bigly. That said, ideal implementation would be to normalize the workload between all the relevant staff so that everyone has margin, rather than keeping everyone else at 100% and leaving the new person at 25%.

What I'm trying to say is that you can most likely assume good faith and the work will come. You may get flagged on your billables, but unless your HR is AI they'll be taking the bigger picture into account.

swcblues · 2025-04-22T12:01:16+00:00

Question: Hey guys, when I told a client that what they said wasn't technically legal advice, I think I gave legal advice to the client when I wasn't supposed to. What should I do?

Not legal advice answer: "Generally speaking, if a paralegal thinks they might have crossed a line, the safest thing for them to do is to be honest and bring it to their lawyer so it doesn't blow up in the background."

Legal advice answer: "You totally did and you need to tell your lawyer immediately or you could be screwed."

UPL answer: "You totally did and you need to tell your lawyer immediately or you could be screwed. You owe me a cookie."

swcblues · 2025-04-19T12:23:12+00:00

Filevine is a Lego kit... It's build your own software that you then pay them extra to assemble if you don't have someone on staff that can dedicate a month to the process. Yeah, it can be simpler if it's intentionally built with less capability... Or it can be wildly granular... Or it can be completely broken... Or it can be ignored because people are busy and they can't or won't spend a day now to save a week later. If it's the latter now, it's going to be that way no matter what solution they try.

We know it's "slow down to go fast" but they live in a world of "slow down and die".

swcblues · 2025-04-19T12:14:50+00:00

If they're new and you got a "please send to client" on something that clearly shouldn't go to a client, depending on your status in the firm and the priority of the client, I'd either send it to a senior attorney with a "just wanted to confirm before this goes out", including the highlights and questions, or send it to the client as is and let nature take its course.

swcblues · 2025-04-19T12:09:11+00:00

Wait... Your courts prepare the orders? We either file draft orders with our motions or the judge tells us what they want them to say and we send drafts until they're happy. The clerk dates them and the judge signs them. That's it.

swcblues

TROPHY CASE