Having just finished my BS in Paralegal Studies, I am in search of the course for my career. What are my options and how do I maximize my potential?
Herein lies the rub...
If an attorney wants to market themselves, streamline the business and increase profits, does the use of an attorney service benefit them, or is the use of an in-house the choice for maxing out profits? I would argue that the use of an attorney service would create opportunities to make money and provide services to the clients which would take staff longer, or be difficult or time-consuming to accomplish. This would in turn save the attorney and client money. Here is an example of how it may work:
Attorney Service scenario: Attorney needs a document served/filed. Paralegal prepares document-about 1/2 hour time, attorney calls support service and requests a filing for a document. Now, with the faxing or emailing of this document to the service, the service then prepares the document for filing with the court, delivers the document to the court on the same day, and then returns the conformed document to the attorney via email or fax. A call notifies the attorney the document has been filed and the hard copies are mailed to the office. Total potential cost to the attorney is somewhere in the neighborhood from $30-$50 (give or take a few details) for the document filing plus 1/2 hour of paralegal time.
Attorney Office scenario: Paralegal prepares document, time involved 1 hour, paralegal or support staff delivers document to court for filing. Document is received back in-house. Total potential cost to the attorney is somewhere in the neighborhood of $80-$120 if paralegal time is billed at $80 per hour.
The cost savings may not seem substantial, but multiplied over numerous clients it becomes a substantial amount. When a subpoena or difficult service is necessary, costs of savings could be even higher.
The potential use of a freelance paralegal to do the same type of work may also be factored in this equation.
My point here is that there are ways for the attorney to streamline the business and increase revenue while providing more cost effective service to the client.
That is the point, isn't it?
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