INEngaging Virtual Assistant and outsourcing paralegal services

Lawyer’s functions are best as members of a team and no lawyer can do everything. A paralegal or administrative assistant whose qualifications and skills meet your needs will effectively extend the reach and quality of lawyer’s practice. Attorney can hire someone to work full time on his payroll. However, technology increasingly offers an effective alternative as a virtual assistant. 
Virtual assistants (VA) are paralegals or other administrative specialists who work offsite and online, creating work product with the specifications of the lawyer and adapted to the practice of law firm. They represent an extension of outsourcing lawyers and law firms have for years. Once the outsourcing was limited to email services and file storage. More recently it has come to include transcription of voice files for depositions, representing support for billing, data entry, graphics litigation support and legal research. These outsourced services are transparent to the client - to the extent that can now be done in India. 
The relationship with a virtual assistant is complex and rewarding. As an independent business owner, the Virtual Assistant is neither an employee nor subordinate. Virtual assistants are more like an accountant or business consultant with whom the lawyer has a continuous working relationship. Become familiar with its practice and in line with their business needs as well as any service provider hired by a substantial period of time. 
An excellent example of a virtual assistant practice is of Trustman & Co, Delhi-based firm offering remote administrative and legal / paralegal support services to professionals in solo practice and small law firm. Trustman share views on what makes the VA relationship work from the perspective of service provider. The following factors should be considered for participation of virtual assistant that has the technical skill and sophistication to carry out effective online business relationship, a personal consultation, face to face or by telephone, experience and qualifications, a realistic cost structure - inappropriately low rates could signal a lack of business sense and indicate a practice that is not profitable (and will not be for long). 
Beyond these business considerations, that through professional qualifications and ability to adapt to the training, ethic and the work you want from the Virtual Assistant. One should ensure paralegal Virtual Assistant can demonstrate knowledge of local rules of the courts and civil procedure, in addition to skills relevant to their practice. Other relevant skills include the ability to organize files and timelines, prepare documents for summons, complaints, responses, proposals and other procedures, research and a summary of statements, conduct legal research, coordination with outside vendors for trial preparation, create and maintain client files. 
A virtual assistant can perform all these activities electronically from a remote location. This implies and requires compatible email, word processing, document management and database capabilities. If the system is WordPerfect word processing, hiring a VA to work only in Word can complicate and not simplify your life. The same is true for other software products: Excel in comparison to Lotus, Quicken versus QuickBooks. But effective electronic integration is a necessity. 
One of the considerations on the relationship outsourced Virtual Assistant is to ensure that it is actually a commitment to an independent contractor. The IRS has very clear guidelines for determining whether a person hired is an independent contractor or an employee for federal tax purposes. An employee is subject to the will and control of the employer not only as to what will be done, but in terms of how they take place - an employee has no independent monitoring of the work process. 
Note also that a Virtual Assistant relationship is different from that with a temporary employment agency. Temps can be a viable solution for small business or personal needs alone, but if you need something more than the most basic clerical assistance would be appropriate to consider and select a long-term temporary, known as permanent temporary. This option accommodates projects extended and protracted litigation, but must be carried out with the temporary employment agency specializing in temporary legal staff. 
Virtual assistants are an outsourcing strategy that can give lawyers the best of all solutions to the need for assistance. Lawyers get a professional team member, selected at its discretion, in line with business needs and professional practice. Lawyers are freed from the costs (and potential liability) that the house staff can represent. Best of all, lawyers have an efficient solution to the Business of Law, one that frees you to do the client representation and other work that lawyer want to do.

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