Paralegal II

State of Maryland • Somerset, MD

4d

About The Position

When you join the Maryland Department of Human Services (DHS), you join a team of more than 5,000 employees across the state dedicated to positively changing the lives of more than 1 million Marylanders each year. We do this by providing economic support, preventive services, and caring for children and adults. We aim to deliver services so that we more quickly meet the needs of the people we serve. At DHS, we grapple with hard questions to find new ways to foster a culture of bold innovation. We do this to ensure that in Maryland, we leave no one behind. The main purpose of the job is to perform legal administrative support and paralegal duties for the Somerset County Department of Social Services, and more specifically for the Agency Attorney appointed to represent the Somerset County Department of Social Services (“SCDSS”) in Child in Need of Assistance (“CINA”) and Termination of Parental Rights (“TPR”) proceedings, as well as in Adult Protective Services and Adult Guardianship matters, and related responsibilities. This will include but not be limited to preparing initial drafts of various petitions, proposed orders and other legal papers relevant to the proceedings, serving as a liaison between the Attorneys and other participants in the proceedings, maintaining the CINA and other calendars, and coordinating with others to ensure proper distribution and/or publication of petitions, notices, and other legal documents. The employee will exercise certain independent responsibility, analyze information, and make recommendations to the Attorney; undertake case organization and file management; maintain and update reference materials; create and maintain database of information through investigation and/or discovery, perform legal research; and assist the Attorney with legal assignments, thereby enabling the Attorney to provide advice and legal counsel to SCDSS.

Requirements

• Graduation from an accredited high school or possession of a high school equivalency certificate.
• Three years of experience as a legal assistant or legal secretary performing legal research or preparing legal documents on behalf of an attorney.
• Thirty credit hours or a certificate in paralegal studies from an accredited college or university may be substituted for the required experience.
• Thirty credit hours from an accredited law school may be substituted for the required experience.
• Additional years of experience as stated above may be substituted on a year-for-year basis for the required education.
• Candidates may substitute U.S. Armed Forces military service experience as a non-commissioned officer in paralegal specialist classifications or paralegal specialist specialty codes in the legal and kindred field of work on a year-for-year basis for the required experience.

Nice To Haves

• One year of experience filing pleadings electronically.
• One year of experience using a scanning system to digitize court files.
• One year of experience redacting files.

Responsibilities

• Litigation Support and Case Organization: Assist Attorney in drafting correspondence, petitions and other pleadings, recommendations to the juvenile court, proposed court orders, affidavits, subpoenas, and other legal documents for use by the Attorney in matters pending in the Circuit Court.
• Liaison with the Court, Counsel, and Others: Communicate with courts and/or administrative personnel, opposing counsel, and other parties to ascertain the status of cases and schedule meetings and proceedings; recommend actions to be taken when detecting discrepancies in information being used during litigation.
• Administrative Support: File and distribute SCDSS court reports to the court and parties.
• Delivery and Filing of Pleadings: Deliver and file legal pleadings and exhibits with the clerk’s office and opposing counsel in a timely manner. Deliver subpoenas to witnesses and parties involved in pending legal matters.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Entry Level
• Education Level: High school or GED
• Number of Employees: 5,001-10,000 employees