Back in the early 1990s when I was an Instructor for a Legal Assistant Class, I came up with a way to teach the students how to build legal research skills. As you know, legal research is needed in every area of law.
As Virtual Bankruptcy Assistants, you may not be exposed to legal research very often because you are working with more “no asset” cases. “No asset” cases are people who file bankruptcy but all the assets they own have been exempted on Schedule C. In other words, there is nothing left for the creditors to take.
But as you advance in your career and become exposed to more bankruptcy cases, you will come in contact with “asset” cases. An “asset” case is when there are assets left over after the allowable exemptions have been applied on Schedule C. When this occurs, litigation is normally involved. In essence, since there are additional assets left over, the creditor wants his share. The creditor files documents with the court to get these assets, copies are delivered to the bankruptcy attorney and an Answer must be filed (normally within 28 days) or the creditor will win by default. (This happens to some attorneys and they have to buy their clients a home, a car or the amount of whatever assets they lose out of their own pocket, simply because the attorney failed to file an Answer or an extension by the due date.)
However, not every asset case in bankruptcy will require legal research. Often, the attorney will have a standard template document he uses in order to file an Answer. However, if the case progresses to the point where a court date is set, the attorney will ask the legal assistant in his office to do some legal research so he can “cite” supporting arguments in his Answer.
Therefore, as a Virtual Legal Assistant, you can also work for trial attorneys by providing them with legal research services. Today, most of your research can be done online so it is not as time-consuming to do as it once was. However, as you build your skills in legal research, you can use this skill in a multitude of scenarios and earn income from all areas of the legal field.
So how do you gain these skills? Since you have read this article up to this point, I know that you are seriously interested in learning legal research. I didn’t want to reveal the answer at the beginning because many people would not take the time the read this article. The answer is: Start a Family Tree.
To begin, go to http://www.ancestory.com Everything is free and you can sign up and immediately start your family tree research. Back in the old days when I was training the Legal Assistant classes, we did not have the internet available to us. So I had to teach them how to start their family tree the old-fashioned way (going through Family Bibles, interviewing relatives, etc.) But thanks to technology, within less than 10 minutes you can start your own family tree and the internet will automatically search for your relatives and (often times) fill in the blank areas for you.
Now I am not suggesting that you spend every available moment tracing your family tree. This should be a hobby that you do after all your work is done, the kids are asleep and your spouse is doing their own thing. You will find that as you spend time building your family tree, you will be acquiring the same skills you need for legal research. And the fun part about all this is that you DON’T KNOW you are building legal research skills. You just think of it as a hobby.
But believe me, if you enjoy tracing your family tree, you will be an excellent legal researcher. However, legal research is not for everyone. Don’t try to force yourself to do it if your only motive is to make money. That will never work. Legal research is one of those skills where you either love it or you hate it. But if you find out you love it, then build your skills and use those skills to provide professional services to attorneys so you can earn an income for the rest of your life.
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