Legally Binding (5 weeks down!)

Well, it's been a stimulating couple of weeks. Stimulating - one of those euphemisms for HARD AND STRESSFUL.

I have been given a few dozen cases to oversee for a few weeks, and it is a lot different to doing work on other peoples' cases. Instead of spending 3 hours drafting one statement, I'm now working on many, many files every hour. Each task carried out needs to be recorded for billing purposes and case tracking purposes. This is easy when only working on 3-4 cases a day, but now I'm working on so many cases all the time, and having to switch my attention suddenly when I get a (dreaded!) phone call, it has thrown me a bit.

This is what they don't prepare you for during your degree, or on the LPC. Sure, I have a good idea of the actual law, and I know how to write (thanks more to primary school than the LPC, although they both teach it), and I'm pretty good at making tea, BUT I was not prepared for time recording or the administrative bits & bobs that have to accompany every piece of work I do. I could blitz through loads of standard letters asking for medical records or CCTV evidence etc. I'd feel like a king doing so much, and then a while later I'd realise that I hadn't recorded my time for something, or I hadn't updated the case tracker thing, or I hadn't scheduled a follow-up to one of the letters. VERY ANNOYING, especially because then I'd have to stop what I'm doing and go pull out the file and load it on the system and figure out what I should have done... and then file it away again. That all takes time.

I guess it's all part of the learning curve and I think I am getting better at it, but it's something that the LPC should have some regard to. On the other hand, lots of things from the LPC - such as legal accounts - appear to apply solely to qualified lawyers and are of no use to trainees. It seems to me that it'd be better if they taught us more about being a trainee. But perhaps other trainees are having a different experience.

Anyway, sorry for the rantlet, the administrative side has been bothering me a lot lately because I feel like I'm getting a lot less work done than I could if I didn't have to worry about all the faff. But I guess it goes with the territory.

The good news is that nobody seems to think I'm doing a bad job, though I think the woman who sits next to me is starting to get annoyed with all my questions! Big Christmas present coming her way!!