Module 6

Deadlines, accuracy and pressure: counting days, checking your work and looking after yourself

A paralegal is trusted with the dates, the numbers, the names and the paperwork. When they are right, no one notices. When they are wrong, everyone does: a limitation period passes, a filing is a day late, a figure in a schedule is transposed, a name is misspelt in a court document. The consequences can be severe for the client and for the firm. Reliability is therefore not an extra but the core of the profession, and it is built from habits: counting dates carefully with the rule written down, keeping a diary that others can see, checking critical work twice and recording time honestly. This module teaches those habits, with a Deadline Calculator that shows its working, and then turns to the pressure that deadlines and workloads create and what to do about it. It overlaps with the lawyer’s view in Life as a Practising Lawyer, Module 3, and the Time and Stress courses of the Interpersonal Skills series go deeper into the personal side.

General education on the work of a paralegal across legal systems, using invented people, firms and cases. It is not legal or career advice. The rules on what paralegals may do, on privilege, disclosure and the counting of time limits, and on qualifications differ between countries and change: check the rules that apply to you with your employer, the court and your regulator.