A Paralegal’s Approach to Doing Work

What constitutes the "real" truth is often hard to pin down in legal matters. The client, the defendant, and the attorneys for each side are hardly disinterested or dispassionate third-party observers. Their status as case participants always gives them an important stake in the proceedings. As such, their opinions and beliefs can get skewed by their positions in the case. In worst-case scenarios, the truth gets confused by what important people-judges, attorneys, juries, adjusters, etc.-may want to hear. The facts are often obscured by unconscious interpretations.

Sometimes the only people who can rescue a sinking case from a series of accusations, arguments, and outright lies are the independent witnesses. Your role as a paralegal calls for you to be able to read "between the lines" of a written witness statement and dig deeply into what was said about the events in question.


Taking client, defendant, and witness statements at face value offers you only one side of the story. You must know how to get to the root of the matter through intelligent questioning skills.

If you're having problems settling a case, go back over the file for more help. Look at the statements and depositions made by all the parties. Spot the verbal clues, apparent misstatements, bald lies, and other issues that can give you a toehold into a new part of the case. Don't be afraid to start again from the beginning. Make phone calls to your witnesses and re-interview them if you have questions after the first pass. Many new issues can have arisen in the weeks or months since you took a statement. Maybe you neglected an important detail; maybe some new information has changed the focus of the case; or maybe your investigator didn't cover a key area to your satisfaction.

When you ask your questions again, find out if the witness knows of any other people who might have seen what he or she saw. While this may seem like an obvious question, you'd be surprised at how many times you'll hear the witness say, "Oh, yeah, the barber who was cutting my hair at the time of the car accident looked out the window when I did. He didn't talk to the cops because he was busy with other customers."

Don't just rely on reports or other outside sources for your information; look for the answers yourself. For a traffic collision case, drive by the scene of the accident; take a look at the defendant's car if it's parked legally on the street; talk to the officer who took the police report; get a feel for the road and weather conditions at the time of the crash; see things from the client's car position,from the defendant's car position, and from the spot where the witness saw the accident.

In a crime case, go to the scene and reenact the events in your mind; look at the positions of people, fixed objects, barriers, and other distractions that may have kept the police, witnesses, or other accusers from seeing what they said they saw. Get a feel from inside yourself as to what happened and how it happened.

In less dramatic cases, those that take place on paper, read the complaints of both parties, study their documentation of the proof, and put yourself in the other s position. Maybe you can see a chance of a new defense, a new argument, or a new way of answering a previously unanswered problem.

Rely on your outside, impartial observers for more help. Most people want to help you and will give you more than enough information if you only ask for it in a polite and professional manner. You may learn of other interested bystanders, third parties who might contribute to your understanding of the case, and even the proverbial "little old lady who was outside watering her petunias when she saw the whole thing happen."

Learn to be more like a bulldog, seizing an important issue based on discussions with your attorney, and really striving to pin it down before the case goes to court and before the other side learns about it first. Be polite, but don't take "no" for an answer when you're dealing with reluctant witnesses. If you can persuade them that their help is important, you can often turn an entire case around.

Remember to keep the big picture in mind and focus on your short- and long-term goals, as well as on those of your attorney.