The Toll Men

I hope you find the following information on Legal Secretarial/PA jobs useful.

THE ROLE

Legal secretaries assist in all aspects of running a law firm. The legal secretaries jobs can include basic tasks such as word processing, audio-typing and dealing with general clerical work. Some legal secretary work can include meeting clients, arranging meeting and some even attend court or police cells.

Legal Secretary jobs can incorporate all areas of law - from criminal and civil law to property, family, corporate, private client and banking.

SKILLS and INTERESTS

If you are looking for a Legal Secretary job you should:

Have an interest in law

Have excellent secretarial skills

Be PC literate

Be accurate and methodical

Be discreet when dealing with confidential information

Have a good standard of English, spelling and grammar

Work well under pressure and be good a meeting deadlines

Of course, a polite friendly manner helps!

A mix of these skills would provide a solid foundation for anyone looking for jobs as a legal secretary

Click here for Legal Secretary jobs

QUALIFICATIONS

There are no formal qualifications to becoming a Legal Secretary, athough a high standard of general education is required. To become a Legal Secretary office and administration experience is useful as is some existing knowledge of the law.

Career Development

Employers often offer on the job training. There are different pathways that lead to legal secretarial qualifications:

** The Institute of Legal Secretaries and PAs

The Institute of Legal Secretaries and PAs offer a diploma thats has been recognised as the most comprehensive qualification for Legal Secretaries. The diploma is extremely useful if you are looking for jobs as a Legal Secretary. The syllabus for the general diploma is divided into five main units:

Outline of the English Legal System

Outlines of the Law of Contract and the Law of Tort

Conveyancing and an outline of Land Law
Civil Litigation
Succession (Wills, Probate and Administration)

The Institute of Legal Secretaries and PAs also offers courses for Legal Secretaries who would like to specialise in one are of law.

The subjects covered are:
- Civil Litigation

- Company and Corporate Law

- Conveyancing

- Criminal Law and Practice

- Matrimonial Law and Family Practice Succession

Click here for Institute Of Legal Secretaries Website and further information: www.institutelegalsecretaries.com

** ILEX Legal Secretaries Certificate & Diploma

ILEX offer a Legal Secretaries Certificate (Level 2) and a Legal Secretaries Diploma (Level 3)

The ILEX Paralegal Programmes (ILEXPP) for Legal Secretaries are now considered the benchmark for those aspiring to or working in a legal environment as secretaries or personal assistants. Reflecting the National Standards in Administration, the programmes offer: a flexible route,
no entry requirements (although a Grade C or above in English Language GCSE is desirable),
a choice of when and where to study, task based assignments which are all accompanied by up to date training manuals.”

The ILEX Legal Secretaries Certificate covers the following areas:

Legal Word Processing

Administration in the Legal Environment

Communication Skills in the Legal Environment

Information Processing in the Legal Environment

The ILEX Legal Secretaries Diploma covers the following areas:

Advanced Legal Word Processing

Advanced Administration in the Legal Environment

Advanced Communication Skills in the Legal Environment

Advanced Information Processing in the Legal Environment

Click here for ILEXPP Website and further information on the ILEX Tutorial (Training to be a Legal Secretary) Web pages

** OCR (RSA) Legal Word Processing

OCR(RSA)offers specialised qualifications in legal text and legal word processing. The course is for those with previous word processing experience who wish to specialise in legal work. This programme is ideal for those who are in employment or wish to gain employment in the legal sector. You will be taught about the production of a range of documents in a legal context. Legal styles and formats. Legal terminology and English grammar are also covered
Legal Text Processing is part of the OCR (Oxford, Cambridge and RSA) suite of qualifications in text processing which are widely recognised by employers as benchmark qualifications in text processing.

Candidates who are successful in achieving accreditation will be able to extend their range of text processing skills at intermediate level and progress to different optional units within the suite of units at Level 2 or to progress to the OCR Text Processing Advanced (Level 3) qualification.

Legal Secretaries work in all areas of law from solicitors offices, barristers chambers through to law courts, police stations and within in house legal teams. It is possible to start as a legal secretary and work towards becoming a legal executive, paralegal or a licensed conveyancer. You could even study for a law degree.

Legal Secretary Jobs

Copywrite Tony Heywood (c)

2006

USCIS reaches H-1B cap

Washington, D.C.- (August 12) U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced today that it has received enough H-1B petitions to meet the congressionally mandated cap for fiscal year 2006. USCIS has determined that the “final receipt date” is August 10, 2005. Any petitions received on that date will be subject to the random selection process described below. USCIS will reject any petitions that are subject to the FY 2006 annual cap and received after the “final receipt date.” Additional information regarding the specific number of H-1B petitions processed is available at: http://uscis.gov/graphics/services/tempbenefits/cap.htm.

Cap and Set Asides. Congress has established an annual H-1B cap of 65,000. Of that number, 6,800 are set aside for the H-1B1 program under terms of the U.S.-Chile and U.S.-Singapore Free Trade Agreements. The total H-1B cap number available for FY 2006 is therefore 58,200. The law provides that any of the unused Chile/Singapore numbers be reallocated back to the FY 2006 H-1B cap. These unused numbers will be made available on October 1, 2006, the start of FY 2007. The law authorizes USCIS to make such unused numbers available within the first 45 days of FY 2007 to aliens who had applied for such visas during FY 2006. At that time, USCIS will announce how many Chile/Singapore numbers went unused and can be reallocated. USCIS will announce the process for distributing any reallocated numbers in a future press release.

Cap Procedures. USCIS has implemented the following process for FY 2006 H-1B filings in accordance with the procedures announced in the Federal Register at 70 FR 23775 (Allocation of Additional H-1B Visas Created by the H-1B Visa Reform Act of 2004):

• USCIS has closely monitored FY2006 H-1B filings and used projections to determine the number of petitions necessary to reach the congressionally mandated cap.
• Having determined that the numerical limits have been exceeded, USCIS will identify those H-1B petitions seeking an FY 2006 number that were received on the date that USCIS received the number of petitions necessary to meet the cap (the “final receipt date”).
• For petitions received on the “final receipt date,” USCIS will apply a computer-generated random selection process. This process will randomly select the exact number of petitions from the day’s receipts needed to meet the congressionally mandated cap.
• After random selection, any remaining H-1B petitions that do not receive an FY 2006 number and are not otherwise exempt will be rejected and returned along with the filing fee(s).
• Petitioners may re-submit their petitions when H-1B visas become available for FY 2007.
• The earliest date for which a petitioner may file a petition requesting FY 2007 H-1B employment with an employment start date of October 1, 2006, is April 1, 2006.

Current H-1B Workers. Petitions for current H-1B workers do not count towards the congressionally mandated H-1B cap. Accordingly, USCIS will continue to process petitions filed to:

• Extend the amount of time a current H-1B worker may remain in the United States.
• Change the terms of employment for current H-1B workers.
• Allow current H-1B workers to change employers.
• Allow current H-1B workers to work concurrently in a second H-1B position.

Cap-Exempt Petitions. As directed by the H-1B Visa Reform Act of 2004, USCIS treats as exempt from the cap for any fiscal year the first 20,000 H-1B petitions reflecting an alien beneficiary with a U.S.-earned master’s or higher degree. For FY 2005 and 2006 USCIS has now received approximately 10,000 and 8,000 of such petitions, respectively. USCIS also notes that petitions for new H-1B employment are not subject to the annual cap at all if the alien will be employed at an institution of higher education or a related or affiliated nonprofit entity, or at a nonprofit research organization or a governmental research organization. Thus, petitions for these exempt H-1B categories may still be filed for work start dates in FY 2005 or 2006.

H-1B in General. The H-1B visa program is utilized by some U.S. businesses to employ foreign workers in specialty occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise in a specialized field, such as scientists, engineers, or computer programmers. As part of the H-1B program, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) requires U.S. employers to meet specific labor conditions to ensure that American workers are not adversely impacted, while the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division safeguards the treatment and compensation of H-1B workers.

About the Author

Al Loy is a staff writer at LawyerIntl.com

Attorneys and lawyers practicing family law take up cases relating to all kinds of family related issues. These can be adoption, prenuptial agreements, marriage, domestic violence, divorce, separation, legal separation, annulment, division of the property accumulated during the marriage, alimony, negotiation, adjudication, child custody and support, child abduction, kidnapping or child seizure, emancipation, abuse in the marriage, parental rights, paternity, juvenile, felonies etc., and many such cases related to family. Other than this they also deal with regular cases relating to criminal laws, property related laws, probation law, trusts etc. However, majority of the cases that come to family lawyers are the divorce, separation, abuse or child custody cases. A number of details need to be considered when it comes to these cases and family lawyers are specialized in all the legalities involved in such cases.

Lawyers and attorneys practicing family law are the best with more experience than qualifications. It is amazing how much documentation and negotiation is expected when taking care of a family related case. Along with this the lawyers must be able to support the party professionally, emotionally and morally all the while helping in separating the client from the spouse and in some instances from the children. Also, the lawyers dealing with the family law cases must be aware of the laws in that particular state as family law differs in each state.

Family law attorneys charge the fee depending on the type of case. In case of divorce, the price can range depending on whether the parties have still some issues pending between them such as property division, child custody, support etc., Most attorney charge either an hourly fee or a flat rate after the case is filed and the court accepts the divorce. However, the best kind of attorneys charge by the hour as there would be less scope of getting fleeced later on after getting a big settlement or alimony from the spouse. These hourly rates can vary depending on the area or state where the case is to be held. Of course, a lawyer in New York, Beverly Hills or Los Angeles would be expected to charge a lot more than a lawyer from a small place in Iowa! Also, it is a usual practice for the attorneys to charge a retainer, as is the case with regular lawyers practicing in other fields of law. If unable to bear the retainer charges, the court can make the spouse bear the retainer charges when the court is requested for counsel fee pedente lite! Pedente lite is a court order for taking financial care of a low income spouse while court proceedings are ongoing.

Family problems can be very upsetting and distressing and the best way to handle them is with the help of a lawyer experienced in practicing family law. An exhaustive list of lawyers that are qualified, experienced can be found either from the yellow pages or on the Internet with some effort. A word of advice, it is the best option to always go for a new lawyer chosen on basis of qualifications and experience instead of the ones recommended by friends or acquaintances or relatives to avoid any problems or explanations later on!