The Rules of the Court:

The paralegal should be familiar with the family law Rules of the DC Superior Court, which can be found at District of Columbia Court Rules Annotated, Volume 2,  SCR-General Family, which includes forms and the rules for sealing family court records, SCR- Dom-Rel., which basically covers divorce and collateral matters.  You will find information on pleadings and motions, discovery and trials. SCR- Intrafamily covers such matters as Temporary Civil Protection Orders, Civil Protection Matters, custody matters and contempt proceedings.

Interviewing the Client:

The paralegal should sit in on the client interview and take copious notes.  Some attorneys will feel comfortable enough with your interviewing skills to allow you to conduct the information gathering interview by yourself.  In either case, it wouldn't hurt to create a checklist/fill in the blanks questionnaire to make sure that all questions are answered.  If the attorney forgets something, the paralegal should follow up and get the required information from the client.

Investigation:

Depending on the specifics of the action, you may be required to investigate any aspect of the case from locating the defendant to uncovering assets.  If the client does not know their spouse's whereabouts, the attorney may ask you to complete the investigative tasks required in order to file a motion to publish/post a legal notice.  You can find excellent resources in past Crier articles on how this is accomplished.

It is possible to find missing defendants with the "People Locator" service available through Lexis/Nexis. Beware that searches of this type on Lexis/Nexis can become quite expensive. An outside skip search trace can cost anywhere from $45.00 to over $100.00 dollars or more, depending on how far you need to dig.  Skip tracing usually is most effective when you have enough information to weed out large amounts of "hits."

Limited asset self-searches can be accomplished through services such as Knowx.com, as well as other fee based services.  There are also companies who will conduct deeper searches for you for a fee.

The client's original (or a certified copy) of their marriage license is required for the divorce hearing.  If the client no longer has the original certificate, you may be asked to assist the client with obtaining a certified copy, or the attorney may ask you to get the document yourself.  If the client was married locally, you can go in person to the Marriage Bureau Branch of the Family Division, but if the client was married in some far off jurisdiction, you will need to make a few phone calls and draft a letter to obtain the certified copy.

Drafting the complaint is a fairly simple task which is often delegated to the paralegal.  If the interview was properly conducted, you should have all the information you need to do it right in the file.  After the complaint is signed, make the required number of copies and take it to DC Superior Court's Family Court clerk and file it.  Don't forget your attorney's check for $80.00 and be sure the attorney's bar number is on the check, beneath his/her signature.  After date stamping the original and your copies, the clerk  will return your copies and issue the summons.

The paralegal may be asked to draft other divorce related pleadings, so familiarize yourself with the pleadings and court required forms. A sample complaint form for an uncontested divorce with points and authorities and a sample summons, in .pdf  format will be provided at the end of this article.  This is the very basic "boilerplate" pro-se complaint, but with a little ingenuity, you can alter it to fit any client's specific situation. Note that in DC,  pro-se litigants must obtain a sealed summons form from the clerk of the Family Court, attorneys may issue their own summonses.  The paralegal should be familiar with preparing the summons for the attorney's signature.

 

If the spouse knows the last known whereabouts of the defendant, you may have no problem serving the defendant.  Remember that the summons is valid for 60 days.  Just prior to the first 60 day expiration period, you can ask the clerk for an "Alias" summons, which will cost $10.00 and give you an extra 60 days.  Although DC law provides for service by certified mail, personal service is the best. You can arrange for a professional process server or you could serve it yourself.  I recommend the paralegal not perform personal service is if there is any chance the defendant may act violently when served with the papers.  The demeanor of the spouse is something you should learn about from the client.   Once personal service has been effected, the paralegal should create a detailed affidavit of personal service, have it signed by the server under notary, and file it with the court.  A detailed series of articles on personal and alternate service of process is available in the Crier's Family Law archives.

 

Discovery:

The role of the paralegal in handling discovery matters is one of the most valuable services a paralegal can offer an attorney.  The ability of the paralegal to draft Interrogatories and Requests for Production of Documents as well as respond to those proffered by the opposing party is valuable asset, because it saves the attorney time that can be spent on other matters.  In depth look at discovery will appear in a future issue, complete with forms.

It is of utmost importance that the paralegal maintain an orderly file.  You really will have two files for each client  1) a client file which contains client information, attorney/paralegal notes, documents, and other areas as circumstances dictate, such as financial statements, evidence, etc.  2) a litigation file should contain all court pleadings, motions, etc. organized and indexed in chronological order, usually starting with the Complaint.

The paralegal should be aware that the DC Superior Court provides child care services for witnesses and others on court related business.  Learn more by clicking on the link button at the end of this article.