How far in advance do you advise your assistant that you will need them to efile something? I get pushback from my assistant about not giving adequate notice when I tell her in the AM that I will need her to file something in the PM. For context, this is just a regular motion (not for SJ or anything complicated). Also, I always prepare my own exhibits and supporting documents, so I just need her to file the final PDFs. Does anyone else experience this? Are my expectations unreasonable?

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I don’t think your expectations sound unreasonable at all based on what you described. In my jurisdiction, what you described is a 5-10 minute job max. Several hours of notice is more than enough.

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Agreed that this sounds like a totally reasonable amount of notice. Is your firm wfh? To me this sounds like maybe your assistant was planning on only pretending to work this PM and is now upset that she has to actually do her job.

Cynical maybe, but I’ve been through that.

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It takes 10 min to do..... So 10 min notice if it's urgent.

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The admin doesn’t just work for you. Respect her time as well. Give her a head’s up the day before if you can.

likesmart

Incorrect across the board? My assumptions are based off of your OP. You said you give her notice in the morning for an afternoon filing, so how am I wrong there by suggesting you give her a day’s notice? Also, if she only works for you, then you should probably ask her why she can’t help you do the filing if she pushes back since you know her workload.

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The day before.

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Depends on how big the filing is. If it’s something like a stipulation, I’ll tell her at the time I need it filed. For a motion with only a couple papers, I’ll tell her the day before and have her confirm the court’s filing deadline and whether e-filing is available.

For an MSJ or other heavy duty filing, I try to give her a couple day’s warning at least.

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If your admin only works for you, that’s plenty of notice (assuming you haven’t given her other priority work for the same day). If she works for others, I’d try to tell her the day before when you can.

I think it’s worth a conversation with her. Why is she having trouble? Why does she need more time? Is she having trouble prioritizing? Is she having trouble jumping from task to task (ie - ADHD concerns)? There’s probably something else going on if she needs more than a few hours heads up for a filing that will take 15 minutes.

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I’m a first year and share my assistant with a senior partner in another group. I try to give at least a day for a small filing cause I know I’m low priority

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My paralegal works just for me. If yours works just for you then the scenario you are describing is more than reasonable. Filing is an easy thing to do (I used to do all my own filing at my previous firm) so there is no reason she can't file your motion in a timely fashion.

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That's literally my paralegal's job. Prepare motions and orders, work with clients on discovery, file stuff. She doesn't even calendar I have a calendaring assistant for that.

As much time in advance as is humanly possible. I juggle so many “quick” tasks and everyone assumes theirs is the quickest and easiest; I guarantee you it’s not.

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Agreed. The only thing that should be filed unexpectedly is a letter. Almost everything else is planned for weeks in advance.

At my firm we have a filing clerks department and they also manage the litigation calendar, so they’re well aware of major filing deadlines. But I still give them a heads up anyways as a courtesy

Does she have access to your calendar? In my firm, when the motion filing deadlines are calendared, the staff get the notice also. Then they can look ahead to know when stuff is going to be filed. But other than for SJ or something big that will require a lot of time, I never give much notice. It's part of their every day job, like saving filings, so i wouldn't tell them it's coming anymore than i would tell them to do other aspects of their job.

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If I can give them a couple days' notice, I will. Sometimes I can't, and that's just the nature of the job. But it goes a long way towards showing your assistant you respect them if you can give them several days' notice for projects.

If prep and exhibits are involved maybe the day prior or sooner if a known deadline n my calendar. If something that just came up five minutes. That is part of their job just like things come up last minute for attorneys and everybody in the firm working on client litigation matters

Basic filings with no time of day deadline: whenever they’re ready, and she can file at her leisure. Basic filings with a time specific deadline (eg 5pm): 60-90 mins ahead. Complex filings (multiple parts, lots of exhibits, etc): morning of or day before. I share my assistant with four other attorneys and I’m the lowest on the totem pole, but she gets it all done!

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