Paralegal Links

Paralegal Gateway

2011-01-18T10:05:00.001-07:00

Paralegal Gateway was the first website dedicated to the paralegal profession. In 2001 its founder, Jeannie S. Johnston, discovered that there were no web sites just for paralegals. She decided to remedy that situation and Paralegal Gateway was formed.

According to the site, ParalegalGateway.com has grown at a rate that certainly surprised its founder. ParalegalGateway.com has become a central source for Paralegals across the globe. Thanks to local associations and publications such as Legal Assistant Today Paralegals are, now more than ever, beginning to receive the recognition they deserve. One major goal of ParalegalGateway.com is to continue in that spirit, offering support, professional information and above all, recognition to Paralegals who are making a difference in both the legal profession and their communities.

Another goal is to promote law firms and companies who offer compensation and incentive programs specifically for their Paralegals. ParalegalGateway will regularly feature employers who have gone above and beyond the standard practices to include Paralegals as a vital part of their organizations.

Looking Ahead: The U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics has projected that the Paralegal profession will grow faster than the average for all occupations through 2012. As the Paralegal profession continues to grow, ParalegalGateway.com intends to grow right along side, providing free news, articles, links, career tools and much more to their Paralegal visitors. Making their Internet debut in 2001, their continued web presence proves Paralegals love ParalegalGateway.com. They have big plans for the future and welcome all partnership opportunities.

Melanie Stuckey
Paralegal to Jennifer L. Donaldson
www.donaldsonlaw.com - A Denver Personal Injury Attorney

Adobe Acrobat

2010-12-02T16:41:00.001-07:00

Since purchasing Adobe Acrobat two years ago, it has gradually become more and more important to my everyday work. As our office moves towards more of a paperless system, I am constantly finding new ways to use it to do my job more efficiently. One site that has helped me tremendously is the Acrobat for Legal Professionals Blog. If you are an Acrobat user, I highly recommend checking it out.

Melanie Stuckey Paralegal to Jennifer L. Donaldson www.donaldsonlaw.com - A Denver Personal Injury Attorney

Colorado Hospital Incident Reports

2010-06-28T11:46:00.001-06:00

We've recently had several cases involving falls at hospitals. During the course of one investigation, we discovered that hospitals are required to report certain incidents to the state for further investigation. Per the Colorado Department of Health website:

"All healthcare facilities licensed by the department are required to report occurrences to the Health Facilities and Emergency Medical Services Division. Statutory citations for this can be found at 25-1-124 (CRS) and 25-3-109 (1),(3),(7),(8) and the regulations can be found in 6 CCR 1011-1, Chapter II, Licensing: 3.2 Occurrence Reporting.

Reportable occurrences include unexplained deaths, brain injuries, spinal cord injuries, life-threatening complications of anesthesia, life-threatening transfusion errors/reactions, severe burns, missing persons, physical abuse, verbal abuse, sexual abuse, neglect, misappropriation of property, diverted drugs and malfunction/misuse of equipment.

Facilities must report these occurrences within one business day. The division will investigate the occurrence and determine if appropriate facility action has been taken, and then write a summary of the occurrence for public viewing. The summaries respect confidentiality and do not reflect the names of the persons involved.

If necessary, following the investigation of the occurrence, the division will cite a deficiency if it finds that state or federal regulations have been violated. As well, division staff review occurrence reports prior to conducting annual surveys in facilities and prior to reissuing a facility's license. Occurrence reports may also be reviewed as part of a complaint investigation."

To start your search for a particular facility, follow this link to the search page at the Colorado Department of Health and locate the facility in question. Once you click through to your hospital of choice, you can view occurrence and complaint reports against that facility.

Melanie Stuckey
Paralegal to Jennifer L. Donaldson
www.donaldsonlaw.com - A Denver Personal Injury Attorney

Pending Supreme Court Cases

2010-04-26T11:37:00.000-06:00

If you are interested in following cases currently pending before the United States Supreme Court, the Supreme Court of the United States Blog is a great resource. It provides up to date information on what cases the court is currently reviewing including detailed information on where each case is in the process.

Melanie Stuckey Paralegal to Jennifer L. Donaldson www.donaldsonlaw.com - A Denver Personal Injury Attorney

Subrogation Law - Passion for Subro

2010-02-08T14:29:00.000-07:00

In a personal injury practice, we constantly have to deal with subrogation issues. Recently, I was searching for information on the laws of another state when I came across Passion for Subro. I found it to be extremely informative about the issue I was researching and several other areas of subrogation and ERISA law as well. If you are researching recent news in subrogation, this is a great place to start.

Melanie Stuckey
Paralegal to Jennifer L. Donaldson
www.donaldsonlaw.com - A Denver Personal Injury Attorney

A Site With Everything Legal

2009-12-16T13:29:00.000-07:00

I recently came across the Public Legal site when I was doing some online legal research and thought I would share. It is a categorized index of more than 4000 select web sites in 238 nations, islands, and territories, as well as thousands of locally stored web pages, legal forms, and downloadable files. It was established in 1995 to serve as a comprehensive resource of the information available on the Internet concerning law and the legal profession, with an emphasis on the United States. Designed for everyone, lay persons and legal scholars alike, it is quality controlled to include only the most substantive legal resources online.

Melanie Stuckey
Paralegal to Jennifer L. Donaldson
www.donaldsonlaw.com - A Denver Personal Injury Attorney

Law Library Research Exchange

2009-12-14T12:57:00.000-07:00

Looking for a great place to read articles related to law and technology? The Law Library Research Exchange is a great resource. You can subscribe to their newsletter to receive emails with the latest articles or to any of their feeds. The site also contains links to court rules, forms and dockets.

Melanie Stuckey
Paralegal to Jennifer L. Donaldson
www.donaldsonlaw.com - A Denver Personal Injury Attorney

Black Book Online

2009-12-11T11:11:00.000-07:00

With links to hundreds of free public records searches, the Black Book Online is a great place to start any investigation. It also has tips and tricks and resources for investigators. It is such a comprehensive resource, everyone in the legal or investigative field should have it bookmarked.

Melanie Stuckey
Paralegal to Jennifer L. Donaldson
www.donaldsonlaw.com - A Denver Personal Injury Attorney

Social Networking Sites

2009-12-09T12:18:00.000-07:00

One of the latest investigative techniques is using social networking sites such as Facebook and My Space to investigate claimants, witnesses and potential jurors. It can be an extremely valuable resource, no matter what area of law you practice. A recent news story illustrated this. It was reported that a woman's long-term disability benefits were terminated because of photos she posted of herself on a social networking site. One site that lets you search multiple social networking sites at one time is Wink. The next time you're search is leading you in the direction of social networking sites, Wink is a great place to start.

Melanie Stuckey
Paralegal to Jennifer L. Donaldson
www.donaldsonlaw.com - A Denver Personal Injury Attorney

Colorado Auto Accident Reports

2009-12-08T09:56:00.002-07:00

In most cases in Colorado, you will need to request an accident report in writing directly from the police agency that investigated the accident. You should check the department's web site or contact the records department before sending a request to find out what fees they charge for reports. Some departments will allow requests to be faxed which can expedite things. If you think there are witness statements or photographs associated with your report, a phone call to the records department is the best way to find out how to obtain them.

Several Colorado police departments are now using online vendors to distribute accident reports. These vendors upload the reports and allow you to purchase them online and receive the report immediately. The fees are not much different than requesting the report from the police department directly. The two most common vendors at this time are TRACView and Report Beam. Go look at these sites to see which police agencies are using them.

Finally, if the report you need is at least eight weeks old or if the Colorado State Patrol investigated the accident, you can obtain a copy from the Colorado Department of Motor Vehicles. You can go to a DMV office to request the report or you can mail your request and a check for $2.20 to the DMV. For more information on obtaining records from the Colorado DMV, see this link.

Melanie Stuckey
Paralegal to Jennifer L. Donaldson
www.donaldsonlaw.com - A Denver Personal Injury Attorney

Performing Your Own Background and Asset Checks

2009-12-07T12:25:00.002-07:00

Have you ever priced a background check or asset check with a private investigator? I have. In certain cases, it is worth it to hire an outside vendor to perform these tasks. But when you have a case where you are fairly certain there are no assets and the policy limits are minimal, is it worth it for your client to spend $500 to $1,500 just to find this out? We used to feel trapped in these situations. But last year we found Accurint and all of that changed.

Accurint searches public records and can run everything from simple address searches to comprehensive asset checks and all for extremely reasonable prices. Our first experience using the service involved a wrongful death case where the heir was an infant. We were 90% certain that the defendant had no assets to supplement her minimal policy limits but because the client was so young, we wanted to be 100% certain before agreeing to settle the case. I contacted numerous private investigators who quoted me minimum prices of $500 just to run a basic asset check. We felt that amount was too high given the situation. That's when I decided to try Accurint. We ran several reports on the defendant and, for less than $20.00, confirmed that she had no assets.

Since then, my primary use for Accurint has been skip traces. In most cases, I have been able to find the person I'm looking for in a few minutes and at a cost of less than $5.00.

If you want to start saving your clients hundreds of dollars, contact Accurint and sign your firm up for an account. You will discover, like I have, that it is one of the most valuable resources a law firm can have.

Melanie Stuckey
Paralegal to Jennifer L. Donaldson
www.donaldsonlaw.com - A Denver Personal Injury Attorney

Colorado Healthcare Transparency Act

2009-12-01T10:08:00.002-07:00

Colorado recently enacted a Healthcare Transparency Act which requires all licensed Colorado Physicians to more thoroughly register with the State. Under the law, they have to disclose:

Any in-state of out-of-state licenses

All board certifications, specialties, affiliations with hospitals and health-care facilities

Any final disciplinary actions voluntary or otherwise taken by a licensing agency in any state, or hospital

Any agreements or stipulations entered into regarding a doctor’s medical license

Involuntary surrender of US DEA registration

Criminal Convictions of felonies or crimes of moral turpitude

Refusal of an insurance company to issue malpractice insurance

Final judgments or settlements of malpractice or negligence

This information is very important in litigation as you do not want to be surprised in the middle of a deposition or trial by the unknown past actions of one of your experts. If you want to do research on a physician who is treating your client and may testify in your case, go to the Colorado Division of Registrations Physician Profile Search page.

Melanie Stuckey
Paralegal to Jennifer L. Donaldson
www.donaldsonlaw.com - A Denver Personal Injury Attorney

Service on Military Personnel

2009-11-30T11:32:00.005-07:00

Have you ever wondered whether a party to your case was in the military? If so, there are rules in place to protect them while they are in the service and especially if they are serving overseas. If you suspect a party might be in the military, go to the Service Members Civil Relief Act web site and search. You must at least have a name and date of birth. If you have a social security number, you can get a more certain confirmation.

Melanie Stuckey
Paralegal to Jennifer L. Donaldson
www.donaldsonlaw.com - A Denver Personal Injury Attorney

Some Interesting Legal Links

2008-02-11T09:39:00.001-07:00

I haven't posted in a while, so I thought I'd just share some random sites. There is no particular subject for this post, I'm just listing some interesting sites I've bookmarked.

Law Library Research Exchange - Law and technology resources for legal professionals.

Resource Shelf - Resources on the Internet compiled by librarians. Emphasis is on public records available on the net. They have a newsletter you can sign up for and an RSS feed.

Internet Legal Research Group - A categorized index of over 4,000 web sites in 238 nations, islands and territories. Salary information is available through this site.

LegalEngine.com - National legal forms directory.

Vitalrec.com - If you are looking for vital records from any state, this is the place to start. Gives information about the vital records offices of every state and territory.

FreeLawLinks.com - A legal resource directory. Has courthouse locations, links to state bar pages, etc.

AnnualReports.com - Get the annual report for any US corporation.

Zillow - Good site for getting some basic real estate value information. Not definitive, but a good place to start if you are trying to get an idea of a property value.

State Voter Registration Verification - Not only can you verify your voter registration, but if you are trying to find someone, this might be a good little tool. Not that everyone registers to vote, but you never know where someone might slip up in their effort to hide.

Online Video Search Site - Search for Video site. This site searches over 100 video sites on the Internet. Someone told me that you can find a video of almost any surgical procedure imaginable on this site. That is why it was brought to my attention, being in the personal injury field. I haven't tried to do the searches extensively yet, but with the popularity of videos on the Internet soaring, this site is sure to come in handy in the future.

National Freedom of Information Coalition - Offers resources if you are doing a FOIA request. Gives sample letters as well.

Obituaries101 - Links to obituaries for every state.

Some interesting, but not necessarily legal related sites:

FOIA Documents of the CIA - Documents released by the CIA pursuant to FOIA requests. Not necessarily legal related, but interesting to look at.

Famous Persons FOIA of the FBI - FBI files on famous people released pursuant to FOIA requests. Same as above, not necessarily legal related, but interesting to look at.

The Black Vault - Declassified documents of the federal government.

Melanie Stuckey
Paralegal to Jennifer L. Donaldson
www.donaldsonlaw.com - A Denver Personal Injury Attorney

Finding People

2007-12-04T09:42:00.002-07:00

Have you ever run into the situation where a person you need to find for a case is no longer at any of the addresses you have on file? I have run into this mostly in trying to find defendants who I need to serve, but I have also lost track of witnesses or had defense counsel insist that a witness we want to depose is nowhere to be found.

About seven years ago, defense counsel insisted that a witness we wanted to depose no longer worked for the defendant and that they had used exhaustive means to locate her to no avail. It was critical that we depose this witness before an upcoming hearing. I was not well versed in locating people at the time so we ended up contacting an investigator to do the job. I called him and gave him all of the information we had available regarding this witness and told him we needed him to rush the job as we had to have her served with a subpoena within 48 hours. Less than 15 minutes later, he faxed me a good address for the witness and an invoice for $150.00. I could not believe what he was charging us for what must have taken him less than five minutes. That is what inspired me to educate myself regarding online public records. Now, the only time I pay someone to find a person for me is if I am overwhelmingly busy.

If you are interested in doing your own people finding, here are a few tips:

Gather all possible information already in your possession regarding the person in question. (Name, date of birth, addresses used in the past, etc.)
Go to the county assessors web site for the county or counties of the past addresses you have. Look up the property records for those addresses to see if the person owned or possibly still owns that property. If those counties have the option to search by name, search for your person. People don’t usually move far so you might get lucky and get a hit. (I know this is how my investigator found my witness 7 years ago because I asked him.) This is the link to the site State and Local Government on the Net which has a fairly comprehensive and up to date listing of government web sites by state.
If you have the name and date of birth and your state allows people to retrieve driving records, get a copy of the person’s motor vehicle record. Also, some states will allow you to search for vehicle ownership records using the person’s name and date of birth. If they’ve recently registered a vehicle or renewed their registration, you might get a good address. Here is the California DMV’s list of links to other state DMV offices.
Search Zaba Search for your state and any other states where you know the person has lived in the past. A lot of the information on this site is based on property records.
Search the court records for your state if they are available online. Fortunately, Colorado was the first state to make all district and county court dockets available online. (You can use either LexisNexis Courtlink or CoCourts to search the Colorado courts for a minimal fee.) I have gotten lucky several times with this search. In this situation, you are looking to see if the person has gotten a recent ticket or was involved in some other form of litigation that was filed very recently. If you find an active court case, the docket will show you when the next court appearance is or you can get the names of the attorneys involved and contact them to get more information. If they have an active criminal sentence, call their probation officer. They will often tell you when their next appointment or court appearance is. I recently found a defendant we had been trying to serve with this method. The court records showed that he had first degree murder charges pending against him and that he was awaiting trial in the county jail. I paid $5.00 to do the court search and would have paid my process server $60.00 to $100.00 to do a skip trace.
Search the database of the state licensing boards in your state. In Colorado, the primary one is the Division of Registrations.
Search the Secretary of State website for any states the person has a relationship with. See if they are a registered business owner or registered agent. This is a link to a listing of Secretary of State web sites.
Search all local residential phone directories, both the book and the online versions. It’s simple, but sometimes works.

Some other places to start searching are listed below:

Skip Ease - Free public records skip trace site. Also has numerous links to other resources.
ZoomInfo - ZoomInfo.com is a free people search, finder and locator based on employment. The ZoomInfo.com free people search contains over 26 million people search summaries.
Wink - Wink is a free people search engine that allows users to search over 170,000,000 people profiles on social networks like MySpace, LinkedIn and Friendster all with one search.
Google People Search - Free Google people search for current students, alumni, faculty and staff at major universities with this university-specific Google people finder, locator search.
AutoTrack XP - AutoTrack XP is a paid service, but I am told that it is one of the most comprehensive databases around. You have to fill out an application and be approved to get an account, so if you think this is something you might use at a future date, get signed up for an account now.
The following sites are good resources with numerous links of interest:
PI Mall
ECSI
Obviously this is just a list to get you started. There are literally thousands of sites that have public records searches available. Just search for "free online public records" on any search engine and you will get thousands of results. If you come across anything you find especially interesting or useful, feel free to share
Good luck on your investigating!!

Melanie Stuckey
Paralegal to Jennifer L. Donaldson
www.donaldsonlaw.com - A Denver Personal Injury Attorney

Some Medical Resources

2007-11-02T14:55:00.000-06:00

Since I work in the personal injury field, I often run into medical issues that I need to learn more about in order to acurately describe my client's injuries to an adjuster. I also run into medical terminology and abbreviations that I don't know the meaning of. Here are a few resources to help you out of you have the same issues:

Wikipedia ICD-I Codes - Lists ICD-9 codes

Wheeless - Wheeless Textbook of Orthopaedics is a great resource if you need to educate yourself regarding any orthopaedic condition.

MediLexicon - You can do several searches on this page. It includes a medical dictionary, ICD-9 codes search, drug search and an area to lookup medical abbreviations.

JDMD.com - Great medical abbreviation glossary. Has a PDF version that you can save to your computer or printout for a desk reference.

Knee1.com - Complete knee information. Has detailed information about knee conditions and procedures with great diagrams and pictures.

Chiropractic Resource Organization - Commonly used chiropractic diagnosis codes and other resources regarding chiropractic care.

Dorlands - Medical Dictionary on the Merk site that is powered by Dorland's Illustrated Medical Dictionary

ADAM - A.D.A.M. Health Illustrated Encyclopedia - available as a resource on the Merk site

The Doe Report - The Doe Report has medical/legal art. You can choose from any of their templates, or you can call them and have them make a custom template based on your client's medical records and diagnostic studies. Use the artwork for presentation at trial or to include in a demand package.

Body1 - Body1 is a site for consumers. You can look up information regarding conditions, procedures and diagnistics.

Now for some laughs:

A Whole Page of Lawyer Jokes

If you find any interesting sites, feel free to post comments, or email me directly at melanie@donaldsonlaw.com

Melanie Stuckey
Paralegal
www.donaldsonlaw.com - a Denver Personal Injury Law Firm

Something to Get Started

2007-11-02T14:26:00.000-06:00

https://www.doradls.state.co.us/alison.php - Colorado Division of Registrations "ALISON" (Automated Licensure Information Online). Contains licensing and disciplinary information for nearly all licenced professionals in Colorado. Use it to find the doctor who has moved twice since your client last saw him or as an investigative tool to find that hard-to-find person. You would be surprised how many people are licensed for something. They are required to keep their address current with DORA, so chances are you can get a good address through this site. If their address is incomplete, call DORA and ask them for the complete information. It is public information, so they will provide it to you, even if it's not listed on their site. I have also used it for asset checks.

http://www.zabasearch.com/ - This site has given me great information in trying to locate someone and to do asset checks. It pulls a lot from property records, so if your subject owns several pieces of property in a given state, you will get the addresses.

http://www.statelocalgov.net/index.cfm - directory of official state, county and city governments.

https://www.cbirecordscheck.com/Index.asp - Colorado Bureau of Investigations records check. Searches cost $6.85, but they can provide extremely valuable information about people.

http://www.archives.gov/st-louis/index.html - The National Archives, National Personnel Records Center. Official Employee Folders and Employee Medical Folders of Federal civilian employees are located here. Also has military personnel, health and medical records of discharged and deceased veterans of all services during the 20th century. Finally, they hold all medical treatment records of retirees from all services as well as records for dependent and other persons treated at naval medical facilities. All forms required to request these documents are on the site.

This next link is a link to an article about the Invisible Web. I just started going through it recently and found it very interesting, so I thought I'd share. Obviously, there is a lot of information on the Invisible Web that we should be tapping into whenever possible. Happy reading. http://oedb.org/library/college-basics/research-beyond-google

Now for a laugh:
http://www.rinkworks.com/said/courtroom.shtml - funny courtroom quotes

If you find any interesting sites, feel free to post comments, or email me directly at melanie@donaldsonlaw.com.

Melanie Stuckey, Paralegal

http://www.donaldsonlaw.com/ - a Denver Personal Injury Attorney