Litigation support staff move cases forward and keep costs down for clients, and play a critical role in preparing litigation pleadings for e-filing with the court. While paralegals work under the direction of attorneys, it’s no secret that new litigation attorneys often follow the lead of that one experienced, chill paralegal to get their first filing out the door.
So for paralegals looking to impress or new associates trying to get their feet on the ground, check out these tips and a draft filing checklist to help make sure your next filing gets accepted by the court. The partners will thank you for making them look great!
Know What Rules Apply and What Login Information Is Needed
While the attorney writing the brief or memo may be focused on building out their creative legal arguments, as the paralegal or associate responsible for getting the pleading filed, you should focus on learning what filing, formatting, and deadline rules apply. Set yourself up for success and limit stress later in the process by creating your own cheat sheet for the motion or filing:
- Jurisdiction. Is the case in state, federal, or specialized court? Which state? Is the matter on appeal or at the trial stage? Different rules apply based on each of these questions.
- Court. Each court system, whether state or federal, is broken down into more local districts. Each court publishes local rules that attorneys must follow. Google, download, and review the local rules and any local standing orders well in advance of the due date. (Consider creating a recurring calendar event to remind you to spend 15 minutes doing this each day!) As discussed below, each court can have specific formatting and style rules!
- Judge. The court assigns the judge to civil matters after the initial filing. If in federal district court, confirm whether you’ve been assigned to a district court or magistrate judge. Once you know the judge, visit the court’s website to download any standing orders from the judge and confirm any judge-specific rules for chambers copies. You can also call the court clerk and ask (anonymously) about any special procedures that are unclear from the website.
- Filing Deadline. Double-check the filing deadline with the court, attorney, and/or co-counsel and set calendar reminders accordingly. Remember - if the court filing is due by 11:59 PM, clicking submit at midnight means it’s late!
- Logins. Many courts rely on e-filing systems. If you will be e-filing, whose login details will you be using? Is that person’s password current? Have that person practice logging in well before the filing deadline to avoid last-minute password resets.
Know the Resources Available to You
Don’t reinvent the wheel. Familiarize yourself with any firm style guides and templates. If your firm doesn’t have any written guidelines, check out the resources section below for links to free online style manuals and citation libraries. And to get your firm-specific questions answered by an experienced fellow paralegal, it’s always better to set up a coffee chat well in advance of the deadline (versus stressing them out for urgent answers hours before something is due!).
Know Your Audience
Which attorney will be reviewing the filing? Do they have any particular style or formatting preferences? See if you can review a document they’ve recently filed as an example (and cross-check any unique style preferences with the court’s rules).
Understand Internal Deadlines
It's always a good idea to ask the attorney you're working with whether they need everything to be finalized by a certain time before the actual court-required filing deadline. You may need to block time to go through this checklist sooner than you expected in order to meet expectations!
Format the Pleading Before Writing; Check Again Before Filing
There is often a rush to file and increased stress right before a deadline. In contrast, we have greater focus and attention to detail at the beginning of a task. Adam Grant, a professor and expert on organizational psychology at the Wharton School, might call this attention management. Regardless of the science behind the strategy, frontloading detail-oriented tasks can save us from simple mistakes. Checklists are also a great tool to avoid errors that can result in a rejected court filing. For each item that you file with the court (brief, memorandum of law, motion, proposed orders, service of chambers courtesy copy), remind yourself to double-check these key items before filing:
- Title of the document;
- Case number;
- Judge or magistrate initials;
- Footers: court rules may require the abbreviated title of the document, case number, and judge or magistrate initials;
- Dates (including the year! Always good to triple check this in the first few months of the year as older templates get used);
- Names of parties;
- Firm (and lawyer) contact information;
- Proof of Service and service list;
- Confidential information redactions (see below for more tips);
- Proper conversion of the document from Microsoft Word to PDF (don’t scan it, which introduces blurriness).
You’ll eventually develop your own checklists for filings, often based on mistakes that were made or filings that got rejected for one reason or another. Mistakes happen, we learn from them, and we add them to our filing checklist!
Online Resources for Litigation Paralegals
Zoom Hearings
Many courts still hold remote access hearings. Drop into the judge’s calendar to observe how the judge conducts that type of hearing and how the court approaches filings from parties. Learn from the best practices (or mistakes) of others and impress the judge with your first filing!
Bluebook
The rules etched in gold by the Bluebook remain the standard for many courts and law firms. But not every legal professional has access to the current edition, whether online or in print. Instead, look to publicly available sources. For example, use the Cornell Law Library to confirm abbreviations. Or use a Bluebook Citation Generator. And Bluebook always summarizes the changes made to each edition so you can update your filing checklist as needed.
Citation Style Guide
Beyond official citation manuals, law firms may have an internal style guide for approaching citations not addressed in the official citation rules. Style guides help writers draft consistent, high-quality documents.
If your firm does not have a style guide, consider using a publicly available legal style guide as a reference point. For example, look to the Supreme Court Style Guide or the style guide for the Office of Solicitor General at the Department of Justice. (Keep in mind, these may be a bit too academic or formal for your firm, but they could be a good starting point!)
Also, remember to always check with the specific court where you are filing the pleading to see if they have a manual. All district courts have one, with unique and specific requirements around fonts, spacing, etc!
Redactions
Privacy is so critical to both your attorneys and the clients the firm represents. If the court you’re filing in requires redactions (like federal court does), you should familiarize yourself with those rules! The attorney you work with will be eternally grateful to you. Redaction rules typically apply to all documents, including attachments. Check the most recent rule version for your type of filing to know what needs to be redacted so you don’t share somebody else’s personal information in a filing, which often becomes a public record that anyone can view.
In general, the following items must be redacted in federal court filings:
- Minors’ names (use initials only)
- Social Security Numbers (use last four digits only)
- Dates of Birth (use year only)
- Financial account numbers (use the last four digits only)
Relax, You’ve Got a Checklist, and Clearbrief!
Clearbrief was designed to act as a second set of eyes to make sure every sentence of the document you’re filing is accurate. You can get a free trial of Clearbrief to automate many of the detailed and time-consuming tasks of writing and filing legal documents. For example, Clearbrief creates a one-click Table of Authorities, adds Bates numbers instantly to exhibits, and seamlessly pulls up and hyperlinks every source document cited (without requiring you subscribe to any legal research tool). It even uses AI to confirm the accuracy of case citations.
Email us at hello@clearbrief.ai and mention this post to receive an extended free trial!
Note: The information in this article applies only to U.S. practices. This article is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal, business, or accounting advice.
