Hiring a virtual team is an affordable way to get experienced paralegals onboard without paying considerably high for an in-house employee. In addition, you have the flexibility to work with them only when the need arises, so you’re not paying for non-productive hours or the overhead while managing in-house staff.

Hiring a virtual paralegal can save you at least 5-10 extra hours each week. If your billable rate is £100/hr and you’re spending 5 hours a week doing unnecessary administrative chores, you lose about £500 a week. At the same time, if you hire a virtual paralegal, you spend around £12/hr for someone else to do those tasks for you. This means you’re paying £60 a week.

Freeing up that for yourself, you can make an extra £440 a week using your time helping clients. If we do a detailed calculation, you have the potential to increase the profit by £22,880 a year in addition to your existing income. So why miss this opportunity to cut costs and increase revenue?

With virtual paralegals from Immigration Paralegal Services, you don’t have to worry about preparing cases yourself. Instead, someone else is preparing them for you. You get someone proficient at gathering required documents, preparing client care letters, cover letters, applications, legal research, and much more at a nominal cost. This will free up your time.

The virtual team of paralegals manages all behind-the-scenes tasks so that you can concentrate on important areas. When you delegate the tasks, you can feel relaxed about strict deadlines and pending caseload. Fewer disruptions at the workplace would also mean a stress-free environment and better productivity.

It is the assurance of confidentiality that fosters any business-client relationship. We, at Immigration Paralegal Services, ensure that your satisfaction, privacy, and peace of mind are given the highest regard. Therefore, we do not store any sensitive information on our servers on completing a job unless specifically instructed to do so.

We have a strict confidentiality policy and refrain from engaging in any conduct that offends the dignity and decorum of your company. The paralegals discuss sensitive information in a private setting and ensure that only authorised personnel are within earshot. Moreover, we never contact your clients without your permission. When asked to do so, the paralegals represent your firm with utmost professionalism and confidentiality.

A virtual paralegal team is an affordable and efficient alternative to hiring and managing a full-time staff. The freelance culture is increasing, and it is revolutionising the legal industry by streamlining the delivery of legal services; it offers newer methodical staffing models to law firms. Lawyers are more inclined towards the hourly and weekly hiring models as it offers them greater flexibility at reduced costs.

Hiring full-time staff is not only time consuming but also requires a lot of money. Apart from spending on advertisements looking for paralegals, hiring them, training them, and retaining them, each stage is costly.

Many solo and small law firms hire virtual immigration paralegals because it saves them time and money and gets the work done efficiently. Since the virtual paralegals at IPS are already trained and experienced, you can kickstart your business operations just by giving instructions.

It’s crucial to get communication right when you are working remotely with virtual paralegals because it has a massive impact on productivity. To ensure that accurate information is given to and received by all parties, clear lines of communication should be set.

You can use any form of virtual communication in the workplace, such as video conferencing, as well as email, instant messages, and the telephone. It is important to let your virtual paralegal know how you would like to be communicated and how often from the very start. You both need to agree on what form of communication will work best for both of you.

When you establish good communication with paralegals and give precise instructions, they feel empowered, and it helps the overall productivity.

Planning, giving clear instructions, having clear expectations, and effective communication are vital to have a successful long-term relationship with your virtual paralegal. Having patience as you get started with the new arrangement is critical. Your paralegal is not going to know your every thought and start taking your workload off the first day. Take time and break down your whole delegating process in the below steps.

• Segregate your tasks – The lawyers should take some time and start jotting down things they need help with. Then, from the list, segregate the tasks that are teachable and are time-consuming.
• Get them Acquainted – Spend some time, in the beginning, to assign tasks and teach them. Make sure you address all the concerns upfront and monitor progress from the very start.
• Set Expectations – Set clear expectations with your paralegals on what you are expecting to accomplish. What would you like them to do and how?
• Set up a timeline – Set a time frame with paralegals to accomplish the tasks. At the end of each day or week, you should get an update on tasks or projects assigned. This will help you to keep an eye on progress.
• Be Reachable – Do not let your calls or emails go unanswered with your Virtual paralegal. Have a system in place to handle questions that arise in emergencies. It is best to layout one mode of communication from the very start.

Virtual work situations are more prone to conflicts which result in blame games. It is easier to blame the person who is not in front of you.

However, there are certain ways by which you can avoid this kind of situation altogether.

• Effective Delegating – Clear distribution responsibility and setting accountability rules out any room for confusion, and hence conflicts.
• Take responsibility – If something goes wrong because of your lack of direction, take responsibility for the mistake. See what went wrong and learn from that so that it doesn’t happen again.
• Create expectations – The attorneys must lay out clear expectations for the project and team members at the beginning itself to avoid confusion.

Hiring a paralegal, whether virtual or in-house is overwhelming in itself. While virtual paralegals are hired to assist you, they cannot think above and beyond your instructions. Since they are not you, they might not know your every thought and predict your moves.

Here are some of the common mistakes you can avoid while hiring a virtual paralegal.

• Desperate Hiring – Some attorneys jump into hiring a virtual paralegal without even assessing their needs. A lot of aspects like requirements, budget, time, etc., need to be taken into account before outsourcing the work to virtual paralegals.
• Unclear structure of roles and responsibilities – Not taking enough time to decide what your paralegal would do will certainly cause difficulties getting started and making it work. Take enough time to decide and jot down what to do on a daily and weekly basis.
• Ineffective Communication – As already discussed above, communication plays a crucial part in dealing with your virtual team. Have effective communication with your paralegal to boost productivity.
• Hiring just for the Skills – While skills are of utmost importance while hiring a paralegal, personality, desire, and determination also contribute equally. Make sure the person you are in business with shares the same attitude and can be trusted.
• Not Asking Questions – While most attorneys guide paralegals and give instructions, they do not ask enough questions. If a certain project takes longer than expected, asking the right questions can help you understand the problem.

Virtual Paralegals are becoming indispensable to law firms. However, if you still aren’t quite sure when to hire a virtual immigration paralegal, below are some tell-tale signs for you.

• No Follow-ups – If you’re good at attracting clients but aren’t able to be in touch with them, you’re missing opportunities.
• Not responding to Emails – If you find your inbox is flooded and you’re burying important messages, it’s probably time to hire a virtual paralegal to help sort through the clutter.
• Missing Appointments – Busy attorneys sometimes forget important occasions such as lunch with a client or a phone call with prospective clients. Hiring a virtual paralegal can keep your schedule in order and handle other tasks effectively.
• Spending more time on Petty Tasks – If you are spending too much time on clerical tasks which can be managed by someone other than a lawyer, you are not using your time effectively. It is time you should think about hiring virtual paralegals.
• Research – Research is a key factor in staying ahead of the competition, but spending a lot of time on that isn’t justified. You can hire a virtual paralegal and save time to formulate strategies and stand out in the competitive legal market.