Ivy Injury Law, Inc.

1555 West 2ndStreet

Indianapolis, IN. 46123

Phone: 317-123-4567

Fax: 317-123-4568

Email: IILaw@injury.com

Website: IIL.com

Introduction

To ensure the firm’s success in accomplishing its mission, this handbook has been prepared to

provide you with a basic understanding of the firm’s mission, vision, policies, and your

responsibilities as an employee. It was prepared to make you aware of what you can expect from

Ivy Injury Law, Inc. – and what the firm will expect from you. We hope your experience here

will be challenging and enjoyable. This handbook should not be construed as an employment

contract or an agreement for employment for any specified period of time. The information we

have included in this handbook may be subject to change; If any information contained in this

handbook conflicts with and any of the laws, rules and policies take precedence over the

information provided in this handbook. Any questions regarding the content of this handbook or

firm policies should be addressed through your supervisor or to Human Resources

Our Firm

Welcome new employees to Ivy Injury Law, Inc. we are so glad you are officially part of our

team. I will begin by giving you some important information about Ivy Injury Law, Inc. This

practice exclusively works in personal injury law, which means we deal with people who are

injured or hurt by the negligence of another person. We use the hourly rate of billing, so the

partners bill at $250.00 an hour, associates at $200.00 an hour, and paralegals at $100.00 an hour.

This is the handbook that you will refer to if you have any questions about our policies, litigation

systems, goals, technology, ethics, or anything about your job. I have found and will elaborate on

the ten most important Ivy Injury Law, Inc. firm policies that new or current employees will look

to when they have questions.

Section 1: Important Ivy Law Policies

The first thing you should do when you arrive at the firm is read this handbook because it will

help you learn what we expect from you, what you are supposed to do, and what you should not

do. This handbook will help you do your best and will provide you with a wealth of information

such as: timekeeping, docket control, billing, technology, ethics, and the litigation system.

Develop good relationships with your co-workers so that everybody can work together with

minimal problems. Review the firm’s ethical responsibilities often. Pay attention to detail! Try to

turn in forms, billing, and statements on time. Learn to complete assignments efficiently. Keep

track of client files. They seem to walk off on their own some times. Most importantly have a

sense of humor. While work will be tough and challenging, remember it is important to laugh

sometimes.
Section 2: New Employee Training Protocol

When you begin your training here at Ivy Injury Law, Inc. you will have one or more of the

following people supervising you making sure your transition into our law office goes smoothly.

We have two partners, three associates, one paralegal manager, and two paralegals. I am one of

the paralegals, my manager will be supervising you, and me, and the partners and associates will

be supervising her. You will start out slowly so that you can really absorb all the information you

will be learning. For each case you are assigned you will be given five resources for success:

1. All the information you need to finish the task that was given to you;
2. Step by step instructions telling you how to do your work;
3. Specific examples showing you what your work should look like;
4. Several supervised chances to do the work yourself; and,
5. Finally, your work will be evaluated.

While you are being trained, you will be doing the following work:
1. Researching for multiple different purposes;
2. Investigation the background of witnesses;
3. Interviewing various players in the case;
4. Organizing information according to our standards;
5. Summarizing information according to our standards;
6. Drafting documents, forms, and communications; and,
7. Responding to a variety of different client questions
Section 3: Recording your Time
Every time you work on a project on behalf of your client attempt to keep track of your hours.
Note: When you are working on either writing or research assignments, practice keeping track of
billable hours!

Copy the time sheet at the end of the manual. The information is broken down like this:

• The first column of the time sheet is where the current date is recorded.

• The second column is the client name.

• The third column is the client file number. This is not the number assigned by the court.
It is our internal law firm-generated number for maintaining our file system.

• The fourth column is the description of the work performed. Be brief, but descriptive. A
good rule of thumb is, after you have finished the entry, ask yourself this simple question:
If you were the client, would you mind paying for that work?

• The fifth and last column logs the amount of time spent on the task. Time is recorded in
tenths of an hour. Thus, 1.0 is one hour. 1.1 is one hour and six minutes. 1.2 is one hour
and 12 minutes, and so forth. Every tenth of an hour is six minutes.

Section 4: Your Litigation System

Here at Ivy Law you will be performing several important duties. One of your primary tasks is

document handling; on a day-to-day basis, you will organize, coordinate, and file necessary

documents for the attorney to access. You will also act as the liaison among all involved parties

of a case. Since you will be responsible for the upkeep of client files it is very important to have

a reliable system in place.

Section 5: Avoiding Missed Deadlines

Perhaps the biggest cause of problems for paralegals appears to be keeping deadlines.

To help avoid this, Ivy Law uses a centralized, shared calendar. This means others may notice

what you’ve let slip, and it also increases the chances of catching data entry mistakes. After all,

when one person in the office slips up, the entire firm can be liable, so we watch out for each

other beforehand.

Inactive cases can enter a kind of office purgatory, where there’s no other work to be done on

them, they can’t be completely dropped. They still need to be on your calendar and part of the

routine. Schedule times to review cases which don’t have other impending deadlines. If you’re

waiting for information from someone else, schedule a time to check back to see if you have it,

and perhaps send a reminder if that’s appropriate. Reviewing a floundering file might bring up

necessary action and could be a step in maintaining a good relationship with clients who grow

alarmed that they haven’t heard from their attorney in months.

Section 6: What you as a Paralegal MAY do

Some duties that you as an Ivy Law paralegal can do include:

 Reviewing relevant state laws on personal injury

 Interviewing clients about their injuries

 Gathering medical reports

 Getting insurance information from the defendant

 Assisting in preparing settlement demands.

You’ll need to be familiar with litigation, have good personal skills, as well as have a handle on

some basic medical terminology.

Section 7: What you as a Paralegal may NOT do

Paralegals cannot establish the attorney/client relationship, i.e. take a case. Paralegals may

interview potential clients, gather information regarding a potential case, and can even prepare a

retainer agreement for the client’s signature, but you cannot decide whether or not to take a

particular case – that is the attorney’s responsibility. That is not to say that an Ivy Law attorney

might not ask your opinion regarding the viability of a case, but the decision about whether or

not to represent an individual is theirs alone.

You are also not allowed to set the amount of a fee to be charged for legal services; represent

clients in court; provide legal advice and opinions (although you can relay information given to

them by your supervising attorney); hold yourself out as attorneys; or make unsupervised legal

judgments.

Section 8: Confidentiality

Lawyers or paralegals are constantly at risk of accidentally breaking client confidentiality

because of the fast-paced and challenging nature of the work at hand. That’s why it is very

important to be organized, alert and cautious when handling client information. It’s not enough to

just keep your mouth shut, especially in today’s world where it seems no information is secure.

1) Use common sense

It should go without saying, but it doesn’t. Overconfidence or carelessness can put your client’s

information at risk. So, at the risk of inciting ‘duh’ here are some no brainers:
  Don’t talk to your clients about their case in public places.

 Leave all the information pertaining to your clients and their cases in your office.

 Don’t be tempted to talk about it even with your closest friend, spouse or family

members.

 If you received text messages from your clients, be sure to delete them right away so that

your spouse, partner or any member of your family may not be able to see it.

 Never talk to clients on the phone when someone else is listening or can overhear your

conversation. They may pick up some cues about the case and it can put your clients’ case

at risk.

 And never brag about it on your social media accounts no matter how proud you are of

the case.

Section 9: Continuing Education

Education doesn’t stop after obtaining the job.

As a paralegal, you still need to keep learning. With different cases leading to new laws and

updated information every day, you need to keep up. Attending continuing education workshops

and seminars will help you stay on top of these issues and assist your attorney in completing

work in a better way.

Not only are seminars related to legal topics important but continuing education subjects related

to professional conduct and presentation are more than important to advancing any paralegal

career. In short, as a paralegal, such matters are crucial to your success and growth.