Office Duties

Question 1

You should always maintain a strict sense of what as a secretary?

Answer 1

Client confidentiality

Question 2

The business of a law office should always remain where?

Answer 2

Remain in that office, never talk to outsiders or coworkers about any particulars relating to a client or a case

Question 3

What are some ways you will treat a client’s legal documents with respect and care?

Answer 3

• Carefully keep all client files out of view from other clients entering the office.
• Position your computer screen away from clients’ eyes.
• Be careful when speaking to a client on the telephone. People within earshot shouldn’t be able to determine the identity of the caller or the topic of the conversation.
• Don’t allow clients to roam about the law office while waiting for their appointments.

Question 4

What should you keep handy and at your desk when taking calls?

Answer 4

A telephone message form.

Question 5

TELEPHONE ETIQUETTE- Do’s

Answer 5

• Be courteous. Speak in a pleasant tone of voice.
• Speak clearly.
• Speak professionally. Use standard business English.
• Address callers respectfully. Use Mr., Ms., or Mrs.
• Be considerate. If you must leave someone on hold for more than one or two minutes, check to see if the person can continue to hold.
• Be responsive. Listen and reassure the client that you’ll relay the message to the attorney as soon as possible.
• Get the proper spelling of the caller’s name and the correct telephone number. Repeat the spelling and the number, particularly if it’s a new name or if the caller didn’t speak clearly.
• Relay all parts of the conversation as soon as possible. Even the most seemingly insignificant comments may be important. If the call is urgent, mention this to the attorney.
• Accurately relay messages from the attorney to the client when asked to do so.

Question 6

TELEPHONE ETIQUETTE- Dont’s

Answer 6

• Don’t be discourteous. Don’t rush the caller or act unsympathetic or uncaring.
• Don’t chew gum, eat, or drink while talking on the phone.
• Don’t use slang.
• Don’t address callers by their first names.
• Don’t leave someone on hold for an extended period of time.
• Don’t promise to have the attorney return the call in a specific amount of time. Don’t give advice over the phone.
• Don’t assume you know the number of the person who is calling. -Ask if he or she is calling from an office phone, cell phone, or home phone.
• Don’t fail to give the message to the appropriate person.
• Don’t expand on or try to interpret any messages you deliver to clients. If a client has questions regarding the message, relay them to the attorney.

Question 7

Are you able to use the office phone for personal calls?

Answer 7

No, Do not make or receive a lot of personal phone calls at the office.

Question 8

Does a smile on your face puts a smile in your voice?

Answer 8

Yes, always be pleasant and courteous when speaking to clients on the telephone.

Question 9

What should you never promise a client when on call?

Answer 9

Never promise a client that the attorney will return the call.

Question 10

If the attorney is waiting for a particular call but has someone in the office when it comes through what should you do?

Answer 10

• knock on the door
• apologize for the interruption
• indicate that the call the attorney was waiting for has come in. Do not mention the name of the caller.

By handling the call in this manner, you give the attorney the opportunity to take the call in another location so the attorney doesn’t breach the confidentiality of the caller.

Question 11

Can you speak to clients or the attorney on a first name basis?

Answer 11

Never refer to the attorney by his or her first name while speaking on the telephone, and never refer to clients by their first names regardless of whether or not they’ve asked you to do so.

Question 12

Learn the office procedure for answering the telephone. If the office has no official policy, answer the phone by?

Answer 12

Giving the attorney’s name. For example, say, “Mr. Smith’s office” or “Good afternoon, Mr. Smith’s office.”

Question 13

If the caller asks to speak to the attorney over the phone you should say what?

Answer 13

“Mr. Doe is unavailable (or unable) to take your call right now. May I have your number so that he may return your call?”

Question 14

When leaving a voice message at another attorney’s office, leave what in the message?

Answer 14

The name of the client and the client’s file number.

Question 15

When leaving a voice message with the court you should include what?

Answer 15

Include the case title and docket number.

Question 16

If someone calls while the attorney is unavailable and your office has voice mail you should give the caller the option to what?

Answer 16

Leaving the message either with you or on the office’s voice answering system.

Question 17

Many callers merely wish to leave their number, but some prefer to leave a longer message on voice mail. You should always do what?

Answer 17

Always give the client the choice.

Question 18

In small law offices, mail is usually delivered how many times a day?

Answer 18

Once a day

Question 19

Larger law offices often have a room where mail is delivered, what is that called?

Answer 19

They often have a central mailroom, which sorts the mail when it comes in. The mailroom delivers first-class mail first and second- and third-class mail later in the day.

Question 20

You should stamp every letter you receive with what?

Answer 20

The date you receive it

Question 21

What do you receive in the mail that you should not stamp?

Answer 21

Any original signed court documents that come in the mail.

Question 22

Mark hand-delivered correspondence with what?

Answer 22

Both the date and the time you receive it. The time may be important to prove receipt of the correspondence by a deadline.

Question 23

What do you separate mail into?

Answer 23

• Important/urgent correspondence,
• regular correspondence
• Advertisements.

Question 24

When you’re new to an office, give the attorney every piece of correspondence and mail. However, when the attorney feels comfortable with your abilities, he or she may ask you to handle some of the mail on your own, what are some examples?

Answer 24

Information that you can simply file in a client’s folder, advertisements, or correspondence confirming dates of upcoming trials (mark your calendar and notify the client concerned).

Question 25

What do the ethical rules prohibit you from doing?

Answer 25

Ethical rules prohibit you from drafting legal documents or correspondence or giving legal advice.

Question 26

You should never give a client what?

Answer 26

Legal advice.

Question 27

What should you never do without an attorney’s instruction and review?

Answer 27

Prepare correspondence, pleadings, Legal advice.

Question 28

What is a pleading?

Answer 28

A pleading is a formal, written statement of each side of a civil case.

Question 29

Steps to posting the attorneys mail?

Answer 29

• Weigh the sealed envelope,
• check the chart on the scale for the required amount of postage
• Run the envelope through the postage meter for the correct amount.

Question 30

Many letters sent from law offices must be sent by what and have what?

Answer 30

By certified mail and with a return receipt card.

Question 31

What is a green card?

Answer 31

Proof that the letter or package was actually delivered, a return receipt card. Anyone at the address can sign.

Question 32

Restricted delivery must be added to the what?

Answer 32

Certified and return receipt services. This means the person on the mail MUST sign.

Question 33

To send a certified letter, you’ll fill out the certified mail form you should do what?

Answer 33

Remove the bottom portion of the slip, which contains the certified number, and attach it to the front of the envelope at the top next to the return address of the office

Question 34

The filing cycle

Answer 34

Establish a routine to keep up with your filing. Some secretaries set aside 10 to 15 minutes every day to file; some catch up on filing whenever their boss is out of the office.

Question 35

How to organize your files?

Answer 35

-Create one expandable alphabetical folder for miscellaneous items. -Put particularly active case files in color-coded file folders—for example, blue for personal-injury cases, red for general litigation, and green for wills and estates. Put each group of colored folders into a separate expandable folder.

Question 36

A calendar is?

Answer 36

A table showing the months, weeks, and days in at least one year

Question 37

What are the different types of calendars?

Answer 37

A law office has many calendars, such as the attorney’s appointment calendar and pocket calendar, the statute-of-limitations calendar, the trial calendar, and the office conference room(s) calendar.

Question 38

You should make entrees on calendars in what?

Answer 38

In pencil so you can easily make necessary changes.

Question 39

How often do you update the appointment and pocket calendars?

Answer 39

Every day so that both you and the attorney know what’s on the calendar for any particular day.

Question 40

What do you include when marking on the attorney’s appointment calendar and pocket calendar?

Answer 40

• Every office appointment, outside appointment, and court appearance that the attorney must attend.
• Also notate deadlines to remind the attorney of upcoming events for which he or she must be prepared.
• Further, you should note other particulars such as phone numbers and file numbers.

Question 41

Where is the appointment calendar kept?

Answer 41

Either the attorney’s desk or your desk depending on who makes appointments

Question 42

What is a limitation?

Answer 42

Refers to a time limit

Question 43

A statute of limitations is what?

Answer 43

Is a maximum time limit set for taking a case to court.

Question 44

What is the plaintiff ?

Answer 44

The person who starts the lawsuit

Question 45

What must you do when marking a statute calendar?

Answer 45

The information for the calendar comes from the attorney, who should mark the appropriate statute dates on the form for new cases.
When you open a new file, you should enter the date(s) into the statute-of-limitations calendar, noting when the complaint must be filed. A good practice is to have a checklist for every file you open.
On the list include a place to “check off” when you’ve recorded the date(s) in the statute calendar. In that way, every time you work on a new file, you can check to make sure you’ve listed the appropriate date in the calendar.

Question 46

How often do you check the statute calendar?

Answer 46

At least every two weeks.

Question 47

When should you make notes of any complaints that must be filed? (On the statute calendar)

Answer 47

Within the next month

Question 48

The office trial calendar should include every what?

Answer 48

Every trial date for every case in the office. As soon as you receive notice of a trial, enter the date in the attorney’s appointment book, in the pocket calendar, and in the trial calendar.

Question 49

What do you enter on the Trial Calendar?

Answer 49

Enter the beginning date of each trial, and mark each additional day estimated for the trial. You may get this estimate for the length of the trial from the attorney, from a cover sheet filed with the complaint, or from the judge who lists the trial. Wherever these dates and estimates come from, be certain to inform the attorney of them and put them on the appropriate calendars.

Question 50

The conference rooms in a law firm are used for what?

Answer 50

Used for meeting with clients, taking depositions, signing of last wills and testaments, formal examinations of subpoenaed documents, and sometimes organization of a client’s file prior to trial.

Question 51

If attorneys meet with clients in their offices you should make certain of what?

Answer 51

Make certain that all papers are removed from their desks and from any surface a client may see.

Question 52

Since the conference rooms are used for many purposes, a calendar listing each room and its scheduled uses should be kept where?

Answer 52

Kept in a central location.

Question 53

What are office management software programs?

Answer 53

Allow law offices to calendar events, store contract information, and perform accounting needs. Office management software programs can store multiple calendars, and multiple people can view the calendars and contact information at the same time on their own computers.

Question 54

What is AbacusLaw?

Answer 54

• An office management software program
• input calendaring information
• Litigation deadlines
• Can consolidate their address books and rolodex information into the contact section
• Case notes can be included in this software package, and attorneys can log telephone calls.
• Documents can be linked to AbacusLaw so everyone in the office can see the documents for a particular case. AbacusLaw allows offices to go paperless. Conflict checks can be made on AbacusLaw. Time entry can be made and bills created on AbacusLaw. You can see how important a program such as AbacusLaw can be in a law office.

Question 55

What is a tickler?

Answer 55

Is a notation or reminder to follow up or review a client’s file for an upcoming deadline of some sort.

Examples: Schedule meetings with all witnesses and obtain updated reports, if necessary
Schedule any depositions
List or schedule anything else of particular importance to the matter which must be accomplished prior to the trial
Indicate the final date by which all motions or other court actions must be filed prior to the trial
Schedule a meeting with a client (one week before the trial) to prepare for the trial
Pull the client’s file one day before the trial to make certain that the file is in order and to make sure the file contains all outstanding filing, so that the attorney has a complete file for the trial

Question 56

What are some examples of what a tickler could be used for?

Answer 56

-Schedule meetings with all witnesses and obtain updated reports, if necessary
-Schedule any depositions
-List or schedule anything else of particular importance to the matter which must be accomplished prior to the trial
Indicate the final date by which all motions or other court actions must be filed prior to the trial
-Schedule a meeting with a client (one week before the trial) to prepare for the trial
-Pull the client’s file one day before the trial to make certain that the file is in order and to make sure the file contains all outstanding filing, so that the attorney has a complete file for the trial

Question 57

What are interrogatories?

Answer 57

A list of questions (usually sent to the opposing side)

Question 58

What is an acknowledgment of service?

Answer 58

A form indicating the person has received the interrogatories

Question 59

Should you use ticklers whenever you or the attorney needs to be reminded of something in connection with a particular matter and daily to keep yourself on track with your files?

Answer 59

Yes.

Question 60

Paperless offices are what?

Answer 60

They are law offices that create, store, receive, and send documents and correspondence electronically.

Question 61

Unless your law firm has its own billing clerk, you, as the legal secretary, will probably prepare and mail the monthly statements for what?

Answer 61

Billing clients.

Question 62

When an attorney spends time on a matter—talking on the phone with a client or preparing a complaint or other pleading—he or she enters the time each day on what?

Answer 62

A time charges sheet (You must then record each entry from the sheet in the appropriate file’s time record.)

Question 63

Disbursements can include what?

Answer 63

Costs such as fees for filing pleadings or for experts’ reports and some overhead costs such as photocopying expenses, long-distance telephone calls, and facsimile transmission costs.

Question 64

As a legal secretary keeping of the library often falls to you, true or false?

Answer 64

True.

Question 65

When updating the library, make certain you’re inserting the correct update in the correct what?

Answer 65

Book.

Question 66

What is a form file?

Answer 66

A collection of previously prepared letters, pleadings, legal documents, and other forms, along with proper instructions for recording or filing them. You can refer to this file when you have to prepare a similar document at a future date.

Question 67

What is hardware?

Answer 67

Hardware is those parts that you can see and touch—for example, the keyboard, the monitor, the case that houses the internal workings of the computer, and the printer

Question 68

What is software?

Answer 68

Is the instruction programs that run the computer and instruct it to perform specific tasks. Software is available for just about anything you want a computer to do, such as word processing, keeping financial records, scheduling appointments and meetings, creating charts, keeping clients’ records, and many more.

Question 69

A computer system has four basic components, what are they?

Answer 69

Input devices
Output devices
Central processing unit (CPU)
Memory

Question 70

What is a Computer keyboard?

Answer 70

Resembles the keyboard of a standard typewriter

Question 71

What is a mouse?

Answer 71

A device connected to the computer by a cable, which when rolled on the desktop controls a pointer on the computer screen

Question 72

What is a Scanner, or optical character reader (OCR)?

Answer 72

“Scans” a document or illustration and puts it into the proper format for a computer’s word processing software

Question 73

What is a Bar code scanners?

Answer 73

Similar to those used at checkout counters, which are used in large law offices to track file location

Question 74

What are Voice recognition systems?

Answer 74

It interpret spoken words and type them into the computer.

Question 75

Output refers to what?

Answer 75

Any type of computer-generated data.

Question 76

Output devices are what?

Answer 76

Are those items that accept output from a computer. Examples of output devices are the computer monitor, which resembles a television set, and a printer.

Question 77

The central processing unit is what?

Answer 77

Is the heart of a computer system. It carries out various operations and directs the interaction between all components of the system. A CPU is capable of multitasking, that is, doing many things at once. For example, it can send information to a printer, receive information for a new document, and receive e-mail—all at the same time.

Question 78

What is memory?

Answer 78

Is a general term used to describe areas where information is stored. Internal memory refers to an area inside the CPU; external memory refers to disks that can be inserted and removed from a slot in your computer. You can store information (letters, documents, charts, records) on both of these types of memory and retrieve it when you want to work with it or print it.

Question 79

What is a modem?

Answer 79

A piece of computer hardware that’s both an input and output device. It allows one computer to communicate with another computer at a different location. It enables data to be transmitted over telephone lines, fiber optics, or satellite. A modem is necessary to receive and send e-mail and to access online legal research services such as Westlaw and LEXIS.

Question 80

E-mail, or electronic mail, refers to what?

Answer 80

Messages sent electronically through the use of communication software, a modem, and the telephone lines. Both the sender and receiver of the message must have e-mail capabilities on their computers, and both must have an e-mail address.

Question 81

What is a facsimile machine?

Answer 81

A fax machine, transmits to and receives documents from other facsimile machines. The machines use the telephone lines to accomplish this transmission. When sending a fax to someone, be sure to take the following steps:

Question 82

What are the steps to sending a fax?

Answer 82

• Complete a cover page, which includes the firm name and address, the current date, the name and fax number of the person or company receiving the fax, the name and direct-dial number of the person sending the fax, and a confidentiality clause regarding the information being transmitted (Figure 17).
• Carefully count the number of pages being transmitted.
• Check the fax number to which you’re sending the document so that you don’t mistakenly forward confidential information to the wrong fax machine.
• Check the confirmation page for the fax number, the number of pages scanned, and the number of pages transmitted.

Question 83

A notary public is what?

Answer 83

A person authorized by law to administer oaths for affidavits and take acknowledgments of signatures on deeds, mortgages, powers of attorney, and other legal documents.

Question 84

Rules to being a notary public.

Answer 84

• Make sure of the identities of the parties to whom you’re administering oaths. Ask for photo identification such as a driver’s license or passport.
• Have the parties who are signing a document do so in your presence. Never notarize a document that was already signed when brought to you for notarization. If someone asks you to do this, explain that you don’t feel comfortable notarizing a document that wasn’t signed in your presence. Many notaries public have been sued for money damages because a document wasn’t signed in their presence or because they didn’t obtain proper identification of the parties prior to execution.
• Keep a log of each person to whom you administer an oath. Indicate the date, time, place, type of document notarized, and any other information required in your state.