Job Description
Job Description
LEGAL ASSISTANT
30 Hours per week, benefits included, salary DOE
Preferred Education and Training:
Minimum of two years of legal secretarial or court clerk work or paralegal certificate, paralegal degree.
Qualifications, Knowledge and Experience:
- Knowledge and understanding of the legal system, procedures, documents, writing, litigation procedure and process, ethics, and professional responsibility
- Provide support and assistance to attorneys
- Knowledge of community resources, agencies and organizations and how they apply to legal cases
- Adobe Acrobat Professional, Word, Excel, Outlook e-mail.
- Ability to maintain confidentiality and interact with county staff and the public in a professional and courteous manner
Essential Job Functions:
- Provide clerical support by assisting attorneys and citizens with information; answer and direct phone calls; retrieve and reproduce documents for public review.
- Prepare Petitions in Dependency and Neglect, Summons, Returns of Service, Motions for Permanency Hearings and Notices and Orders Regarding Permanency Hearings in dependency and neglect matters for attorney review and filing, distribution and service. Prepare court orders summarizing dependency and neglect hearings (temporary custody, shelter, placement, advisement of rights, adjudicatory, dispositional, permanency hearings and permanency reviews) as well as court orders summarizing child support enforcement hearings, submit said orders to the court for review and signature; distribute draft orders to attorneys of record, Court Appointed Special Advocate, ICWA caseworkers, Child Support Enforcement Technicians and pro se individuals via e-mail, mail or hand-delivery.
- File court pleadings and other documents using the Colorado State Judicial Departments' E-Filing system (civil and domestic relations cases), at the trial and appellate court levels.
- Review dependency and neglect case discovery by the Montezuma County Department of Social Services for confidential information and redaction, Bates number/date discovery pages for placement into County Attorney digital file; email or copy discovery onto media for distribution to attorneys of record, CASA, ICWA caseworkers and pro se individuals.
- Maintain County Attorney digital case files, monitor court cases for pleadings/court orders and case status. Maintain court calendar for the Montezuma County Attorney's Office
- Receive and distribute mail/faxes, prepare outgoing mailings; file and maintain records by scanning and text recognition of PDF documents into digital files; copies and faxes; maintains office supplies; maintains a dependency and neglect scheduled court calendar for the Montezuma County Department of Social Services for distribution to Montezuma County Department of Social Services 2 supervisor and ongoing caseworkers. Submit monthly bills to the Montezuma County Finance Department.
Physical Demands:
The work is light and requires exerting up to 20 pounds of force occasionally, and/or up to 10 pounds of force to move objects. Requires crouching, handling, reaching, repetitive motion, and mental acuity including the ability to make rational decisions through sound logic and deductive processes, the ability to express ideas verbally, ability to receive detailed information through oral communication, and to make the discrimination by audio, and have visual acuity. Work is performed in a dynamic environment that requires the ability to be sensitive to change and responsive to changing goals, priorities, and needs.