Legal Assistant

S R International•Phoenix, AZ

10d•Hybrid

About The Position

This position functions as a Legal Assistant to provide support to the Administrative Law Judges (ALJs) at the Appellate Services Administration (ASA). This function is mission critical, as ASA requires this position to review requests for an appeal, select exhibits for hearings, and distinguish between the different programs and issues of appeals to create packets that will be sent to all parties and used as exhibits in scheduled hearings with multiple parties. Primary duties for this position include verifying incoming appeals, retrieving accurate exhibits for a hearing, entering case documentation into appropriate repositories, assisting Administrative Law Judges with case research, interpreting necessary procedures for research and analysis of case files for hearings, and uploading legal decisions and dispositions for the department to take action on a case. This also includes scheduling the hearings for the ALJs and assisting customers with elevated docket calls.

Requirements

Organization and maintenance of confidential paper and electronic files
Arizona Public Assistance and Unemployment Insurance law, practices, and procedures
Customer service techniques and office security procedures
identification of complex legal issues with appeals in a timely manner.
English; speaking, writing, reading
multi-task capabilities
knowledge of Google Apps (Gmail, Docs, Sheets), Adobe Acrobat
Customer service techniques
Work with minimal supervision
Case management systems (e.g. APS, Clear2There, Guide mainframe, HEAplus, AZTECS, CACTUS)
Office policies and procedures and handling sensitive data.
Computer Skills

Nice To Haves

mid-level legal background (not a must have, but beneficial).

Responsibilities

Verifying incoming appeals
Retrieving accurate exhibits for a hearing
Entering case documentation into appropriate repositories
Assisting Administrative Law Judges with case research
Interpreting necessary procedures for research and analysis of case files for hearings
Uploading legal decisions and dispositions for the department to take action on a case
Scheduling the hearings for the ALJs
Assisting customers with elevated docket calls
Analyzes jurisdiction, issues, etc. by reviewing images and paper documents per case.
Create hearing packets for ALJs to use as exhibits during the procedural hearing.
Determine the timeliness of the request for hearing and register additional issues as needed.
Ensure incoming appeals meet noticing deadlines mandated by Federal and State laws.
Research-related issues are elevated by legal support staff or referred by ALJs, ASA management or other DES Departments.
Identify and correct errors and virtually print missing documents.
Elevate appeals to the Board for Appeals as necessary.
Enter notes into the case documentation repository.
Timely and accurately process requests for postponements, withdrawals, and other requests by parties and ALJs.
Adapt to prescribed procedures within the Administration, knowledge of the Administrative Procedures Act
Perform repetitive detailed work with a very high level of accuracy and speed
Concentrate and focus on complex and sometimes conflicting information from a variety of sources
Analyze and research complex case information observing confidentiality policies and making command decisions on assigning workload to meet legally mandated deadlines
Ability to work with customers and staff of various backgrounds, nationalities, and needs.
Manage conflicting priorities and demands
Operating various office equipment
Use of computer with multiple programs running simultaneously
Interpersonal skills to handle internal and external customer complaints and concerns.
Effectively communicate (e.g. verbal, written, and reading) with internal and external customers, ALJs, coworkers, agency personnel, supervisors, and managers.
Use critical thinking to analyze complex appeals requests, resolve conflicts between competing information, and extract and capture pertinent legal information.
Managing multiple computer programs at one time
Identifying appropriate legal documents in an imaging system to create and send out notices for hearings and create case files.