I'm Doing Two Jobs

Double post today, but this is annoying me.

I have a full time job. Actually more than full time. However, most days, I feel like its really two jobs. It may be close to three. Apparently, I have to seriously calendar and double check every thing at work that I give to my boss (or his secretary). I can't rely on my boss' secretary to have anything calendared for when stuff has to be filed with the court, or provided to the client, or otherwise followed up on. I have to double check that when I give something to my boss for him to review, a court filing, a letter to the client, that the document has subsequently been signed, filed with the court, mailed, etc. I have to double check everything that is created by my boss for filing, service, etc. because his secretary will not do anything extra.

The last couple of weeks were just amazing. We have a settlement conference in a case coming up. My computer reminds me two weeks before that I have to do the statement and have it filed with the court a week before the conference. I do the statement, give to my boss. The last day for filing, my reminder comes up (should have been the day before, next time). I never got the statement back from my boss (which he'd do if a change was needed), so I ask my boss' secretary if she filed it with the court. She looks on the computer to see if it was electronically filed (our local court does that for 90% of documents). I have to remind her that it won't show up on the computer because the settlement conference statement is hand filed, not electronically filed. She should know this.

However, she also doesn't find a cover letter of service to the other parties. I look in her redwell of documents for filing in our office files. Sure enough, there's the Settlement conference statement, signed by my boss, just sitting there ready to be put in the case folder. Not filed with the court (no stamp). Not served (no cover letter or proof of service). Fortunately, the courthouse is across the street, so we can get it filed and served on the last day.

How does she just put something in her filing folder without looking at it? Without knowing it has to be filed with the court? She supposedly has experience, but seriously she has to be told every little thing.

When we got a copy of the filed statement back, I double check the client correspondence file. My boss' last letter to the client, dated a month previously, said we'd let him know about the settlement conference when it was scheduled. No letter since then. With the conference a week away, I draft a letter to the client, enclosing the statement and asking him to call us before the conference to discuss our position. I print and give to my boss.

Now, three days before the conference, I find out that more than likely, the letter never got emailed. Oh, the letter is in the client correspondence folder, but its not signed, there's no email attaching it, and the settlement conference statement never got scanned in to be an attachment. Again, a document gets put in the file, by my boss' secretary, without actually having anything done with it. She can't recall a day or two later that a letter she's filing never got sent?

My bosses secretary also needed me to sign some cover letters today to serve subpoenas (because my boss is out). Good thing I had to, since I do read "routine" letters before I sign them. She hands me four subpoenas for records we need to get, one for accident/investigation records, two for medical records, one for employment records. The subpoenas simply say that, "Investigation records for accident." "Medical records and documents." "Employment records and documents." Nothing about um, like WHOSE records we're requesting. Nothing about um, like WHAT accident (date, location, something). I'm sure the hospital going to say, "Oh nice, a subpoena for somebody's medical records, that narrows it down." The Police Dept. says, "an accident report? How about a date maybe?"

I just can't believe this secretary was going to let those subpoenas be served. She says, I just type what he (my boss) tells me to. I want to say, don't you think he assumed you fill in whatever info is necessary, like a name, date, etc.? Haven't you ever done a subpoena before, since you're supposed to have been a legal secretary for 15 years? Don't you even read what you've typed from the point of view of the person receiving it? Did you really think the hospital records clerk is going to have ESP to know to which of the thousands of patients your subpoena referred? While most of the time, yes we're subpoenaing the plaintiff's records, in this case, we were also subpoenaing a co-defendant's records. The Hospital isn't going to know that. You really want to tell the boss you didn't know to put a name on the subpoena, or who he was referring to and then didn't ask him, when he inevitably gets the letter from the hospital saying "We have no idea what you want, the subpoena doesn't say what patient"?

The second excuse, that my boss probably looked at them when he signed the Notice of Intent (which has to be served on opposing parties 20 days before you serve the subpoenas, so they can object) and he didn't have any problems and opposing counsel didn't object, is also without merit. She knows my boss doesn't review what he considers to be 'routine' items. I doubt he even looked at them, he just signed the Notice of Intent and cover letter, and probably didn't read those either (the subpoenaes are signed/stamped by the court clerk, not the attorney).

My boss barely looks at discovery we serve. He had one set of "standard/form interrogatories" that had about 10 questions that needed to be slightly changed each time for the particular case facts (change names, dates, address, etc.). His prior secretary always made those changes, so he never bothered looking at them, he just signed the last page. The new secretary didn't make those changes (even after I pointed it out to her), so we started getting a bunch of "not applicable" or "I don't know what you mean" answers to those questions. We had one plaintiff threaten to file a motion with the court because our questions implied she had other problems with her house that she wasn't aware of, but that was only because the questions were from a different case. I finally had to take my own time to redraft "standard interrogatories" for each type of case and court system (state and federal) so that they didn't require any changes for the different cases because it became obvious that my boss' secretary was never going to individualize the rogs for each case.

Finally, of course, opposing counsel isn't going to object to vague subpoenas that aren't going to produce anything. Its not his problem if we don't get his client's medical records. He'd probably prefer we didn't, or at least that we cost the client more money so the defendant will want to settle.

This mindless, 'I just following the literal instructions,' is annoying as hell. Its not that difficult to think a little bit. Read what you type. Does it make sense? If not, figure out what will make it make sense.

I have the same complaint about my own secretary. She just types what she thinks she hears/reads, and doesn't bother to determine whether the sentence makes any sense. This is why most of the time, I do my own typing. I can type what I want to say in half the time it takes me to dictate, proof-read, make corrections, proof-read my corrections, make more corrections, proof-read those corrections, etc. Its bad enough that I have to do my time-sheets twice. Write them once (sometimes twice if I scribble), then review them again after my secretary types them into the time program, usually requiring multiple fixes.

Secretaries are supposed to help us do our jobs. They are supposed to be a back up for dates, names, etc. It does not help me, and in fact makes my job twice as hard, if I have to track down and follow up on every thing I give my boss, or that my boss does to make sure its been done right, or even done at all.

I better get a good raise next review time.