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I'm starting part-time work as a legal assistant in a personal injury law firm in NYC, but I feel under-qualified. I'm only a college student, and I got it by emphasizing my high GPA and embellishing past office work.
Do you know of any books, articles, blogs, etc (Anything), I can read to better familiarize myself with how the litigation/tort process works? I just don't want to feel clueless/awkward.

I was told by a friend to ask for the "first year torts casebook"?

You'll be fine just follow directions and ask questions.

I'm sure there's plenty of material on the internet for personal injury law in your state. But one thing you could do is to look at the files of previous cases to see what that firm has done.

andymayne wrote:I'm starting part-time work as a legal assistant in a personal injury law firm, but I feel under-qualified. I'm only a college student, and I got it by emphasizing my high GPA and embellishing past office work.
Do you know of any books, articles, blogs, etc (Anything), I can read to better familiarize myself with how the litigation/tort process works? I just don't want to feel clueless/awkward.

I was told by a friend to ask for the "first year torts casebook"?

Ignore the textbooks advice just stupid.
It's a tort firm, so you'll see a lot of filings that state

Defendant had a duty to Plaintiff[to drive safely, to maintain a premises], Defendant breached that duty by not acting reasonably; that unreasonable conduct was a breach that caused injuries to Plaintiff; those damages are monetized by x y and z.

Beyond that just look at a lot of examples of your firms work.

andymayne wrote:I'm starting part-time work as a legal assistant in a personal injury law firm, but I feel under-qualified. I'm only a college student, and I got it by emphasizing my high GPA and embellishing past office work.
Do you know of any books, articles, blogs, etc (Anything), I can read to better familiarize myself with how the litigation/tort process works? I just don't want to feel clueless/awkward.

I was told by a friend to ask for the "first year torts casebook"?

I was in your same position -- college and working at PI office. Needed no legal knowledge at all. All PI places really do are insurance work/medical bills...I attended depositions and mediations (my atty boss did them every so often when an insurance company didnt want to settle) , but as far as my tasks went, they were pretty basic; e.g., ''call this insurance company and open a claim, tell them the facts in the police report...'' ''draft this demand letter with these numbers''

What state are you in?

don't sweat the legal stuff. be pleasant, answer your emails, and ask questions when you don't understand something. there are going to be very low expectations for a part time college student.

for the lay person, i recommend the documentary "hot coffee." it's based off of the lady who scalded herself with McDonalds coffee but really it's about torts and tort reform. i think it's streaming on netflix.

reasonable_man wrote:What state are you in?

NYC

pancakes3 wrote:don't sweat the legal stuff. be pleasant, answer your emails, and ask questions when you don't understand something. there are going to be very low expectations for a part time college student.

for the lay person, i recommend the documentary "hot coffee." it's based off of the lady who scalded herself with McDonalds coffee but really it's about torts and tort reform. i think it's streaming on netflix.

Probably, but something that concerns me is that on the job posting it said that required education is "masters," and so they might actually expect more from me than I know.

You'll be fine.

I don't suggest reading a torts book. If you want any sort of a reference material (which is probably even overkill honestly), you can pick up an old copy of Siegels New York Practice. That is sort of the Bible for NY Civil Practice.

You'll most likely be preparing Bills of Particular in response to demands from defense firms. That is a document that is very basic in nature and you'll have plenty to look at in the office. You'll provide some responses (which will largely be canned responses other than basics like date of birth, location of an accident, etc. - which will be specific to the case). The remaining answers like how the defendants were negligent, etc. is all canned.

You'll also prepare responses to demands for documents. Largely, on the plaintiff side, you'll be preparing HIPAA authorizations allowing the defendants to obtain school, medical and work records. You will prepare responses for photos and police reports, etc. You'll also receive responses from the other side and inventory the information you receive.

You may be asked to assist with client intake, where you'll have a form that you'll work off of to obtain basic info about the client and the case.

Its really not rocket science. You'll be just fine. Its not glamorous - but you will learn alot about practice and procedure that transfers to other areas of the law.