Legal Virtual Assistant
Calendaring, drafting, intake, discovery and trust reconciliation, handled by legal administrative staff who have done it for fourteen years — and who know exactly where the line is.
What A Firm Hands Over
Calendaring & Deadlines
Every date double-entered from the rules and the order, with reminders at the intervals you set. The single most valuable thing we do and the reason most firms call.
Document Preparation & Filing
Pleadings, correspondence and routine documents drafted to your templates for your review, then filed through your e-filing account once you approve.
Client Intake & Conflict Checks
New matter intake forms completed, conflict searches run against your system, engagement letters prepared and chased to signature.
Records & Discovery Support
Records requested and tracked, productions organized and Bates-stamped, privilege logs maintained and document sets indexed so nothing is hunted for twice.
Billing & Trust Reconciliation
Time entries chased, invoices prepared, receivables followed, and a three-way trust reconciliation each month ready for your review.
Rates
Hourly for firms testing the arrangement, retained once the volume is steady. No setup fee either way.
E-filing fees, courier charges and records fees are yours and billed at cost, with the receipt attached.
Fourteen Years, One Principle
We Are Administrative Staff
Not paralegals under your supervision by another name, and certainly not lawyers. Everything we draft is for an attorney's review, and every communication goes out over your name, not ours.
Deadlines Are Double-Entered
Calculated once from the rules and once from the order, by two different people, and reconciled. It is tedious and it is why the number above is zero.
Confidentiality Is Written Down
Signed before access, binding after the engagement, extended to the named backup, and supported by a conflicts check on our side before we take a new firm in the same market.
We Work In Your Systems
Your practice management software, your document system, your e-filing account, through named credentials you grant and revoke.
Start With The Calendar
Most firms hand over calendaring first. Ten hours is enough to get every matter entered properly and to see whether the arrangement suits you.
Standard, Not Extra
A named assistant and a named backup
Both covered by the same agreement, both introduced before they are needed.
Double-entered deadlines
Two people, two sources, reconciled weekly. The reason firms stay.
A monthly trust reconciliation
Prepared for your review and signature, not filed on your behalf.
Your templates, your name
Everything drafted in your house style and sent out over your signature.
A clean handover
Matter lists, calendars and document indexes handed over in a usable form if we part.
What Changed At Their Firm
I am a solo. Before Docketmoor my calendar lived in my head and I slept badly. Now the deadlines are double-entered by someone whose only job is deadlines.
Trust reconciliation used to be a monthly weekend. It is now a Thursday email that I read and approve, and our bar compliance review was the shortest we have ever had.
They drafted, I reviewed, and they never once tried to practice law. That line matters more to me than anything else on their website.
Questions Attorneys Ask
Are your staff paralegals?
Some have paralegal backgrounds, but we hold ourselves out as legal administrative support, not as paralegals working under your supervision. Everything we prepare is for an attorney to review and adopt.
How do you avoid the unauthorized practice of law?
We do not advise clients, select forms, set strategy or communicate legal positions. Drafts go to you; communications go out over your signature. The scope agreement states this plainly and our staff are trained on it annually.
Do you check conflicts on your side?
Yes. Before taking a new firm we check it against the firms we already support in the same market and practice area, and we will decline rather than create an awkwardness.
Which states do you work in?
All of them. Rules and local filing requirements differ; the first month in a new jurisdiction includes building the calendaring rule set, which we do not charge extra for.
Can you file on our behalf?
We prepare and submit through your e-filing credentials once an attorney has approved the document. The filing is the firm's; we are the hands.
What notice is required?
Thirty days on a retainer, none on hourly. Matter lists, calendars and indexes are handed over in full either way.
Firms Where The Attorney Is Also The Admin
Solo practitioners
Where calendaring, intake and billing happen after six o'clock because the day belongs to clients.
Two- to five-attorney firms
Too small for a full-time administrator, too busy to keep improvising between them.
Firms between hires
Cover for a legal assistant on leave or a vacancy that is taking months to fill properly.
Practices with a filing-heavy docket
Family, immigration, estate planning and personal injury, where deadlines are constant and unforgiving.
Three Things We Will Never Do
Give Legal Advice
To your clients or to you. If a client asks us a legal question the answer is always that the attorney will respond, and we route it the same hour.
Sign Or Send In Our Own Name
Every letter, pleading and email goes out over an attorney's signature. Nobody outside your firm ever deals with us as though we were it.
Hold Client Funds
We prepare trust reconciliations for your review. We never have transactional access to a trust account, and we will refuse it if offered.
Bring Your Calendar And Your Worst Week
We will tell you what ten hours a month would realistically take off your desk, and run our conflicts check before you commit to anything.
Book A Discovery Call
Tell us your practice area, your state and what is currently late. We reply the same business day.
- Visit usTulsa, OK 74103
- Call us(918) 555-0193
- Email usoffice@docketmoor.com