Paralegal III, Motor Vehicles (60010381)

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The Motor Vehicles Section of the Attorney General’s Office provides comprehensive legal services to the Commissioner of the Division of Motor Vehicles, staff and directors and other Division employees. This Section provides verbal and written legal opinions on laws, constitutional provisions, administrative regulations, court decisions, and other precedents impacting on the Division’s policies, plans, and operational procedures and drafts and reviews departmental regulations, operational guidelines, contracts, division-sponsored legislation and other legal documents. 

The paralegal in this position will assist five staff attorneys in the Motor Vehicles Section of the Attorney General’s Office. The position performs various legal tasks, including drafting legal documents, document preparation, legal research into complex issues without specific precedents, litigation support and case management, data entry, and other organizational tasks. Projects are varied as required by the demands of the particular investigation and/or litigation.

• Conduct legal research using Lexis-Nexis or other automated research sources, i.e., Westlaw, and manual research techniques.
• Review and analyze research materials, case files, and court opinions to assess their applicability to the issue being researched. 
• Update known precedents through Shephard’s or other means to determine whether they have been overruled or modified.
• Contact court clerks to research local rules and procedures, accessing court files as necessary to ensure comprehensive legal research.

• Draft motions, discovery requests and responses, and correspondence to attorneys and clerks of court in complex cases. 
• Edit, cite, check, and finalize legal documents, including briefs and memoranda in North Carolina trial and appellate courts, Federal District and Appellate Courts, Office of Administrative Hearings, and Bankruptcy Courts.
• Assist staff attorneys with finalizing legal documents.

• Organize exhibits for depositions, hearings, briefs, etc. and prepare indexes, notebooks and/or appendices as necessary to present the materials appropriately in each particular forum.
• Apprise attorneys of critical documents as they are received through discovery responses or during client interviews. 
• Interview witnesses to identify key information to be established in an affidavit and then integrate that information into a detailed, accurate, coherent, concise affidavit. 
• Electronically reproduce, store, and organize documents. Transmit electronically stored documents to opposing parties or courts and prepare the electronically stored documents for presentation at hearings and trials. 
• Coordinate with the court clerk and court reporter regarding exhibits and transcripts. This position attends trials, hearings and depositions to assist attorneys in handling documents and exhibits to be introduced and taking notes for the attorney's use.
• Contact and schedule witnesses to appear and testify in court, and draft and issue subpoenas as necessary. This individual schedules the deponent, space, court reporter, attorneys and any other necessary components for the depositions.

• Assemble records on appeal and joint appendices for lawsuits on appeal.  
• Proof, cite, check, and format filings from the Department to ensure the court does not reject the filing.
• Assist with researching issues presented in the appeal.
• Communicate with court clerks to assure compliance with all procedures and deadlines. Many of the cases assigned to the unit are unique and require special procedures within the established procedures of the individual courts.

• Develop and initiate filing systems and procedures that address each lawsuit's special needs and complexity and accommodate the large volume of paperwork often generated. 
• Organize, catalog, and analyze the research to formulate demand letters, interrogatories and discovery responses. This requires organizing files and/or developing data to ensure easy access by all staff assigned to the case.
• Track and update litigation progress in the Department's management software.

• Knowledge of federal and state case, statutory, and common law, as well as the rules of civil procedure, rules of evidence, and rules of appellate procedure. 
• Knowledge of federal and state judicial and quasi-judicial practices and procedures.
• Ability to train others in civil and appellate procedure.
• Ability to perform legal research in accordance with preliminary instructions as to methods or approach, source material available, and policy and precedent of the office.
• Knowledge of proper citation form, is a highly skilled editor and proofreader, and has the ability to synthesize the facts and issues of the case independently.

Some state job postings say you can qualify by an “equivalent combination of education and experience.” If that language appears below, then you may qualify through EITHER years of education OR years of directly related experience, OR a combination of both. See oshr.nc.gov/experience-guide for detail.

Graduation from an appropriately accredited institution for paralegal training and three years of experience as a paralegal; or Bachelor’s degree from an appropriately accredited institution and three years of substantive paralegal experience; or High school or General Education Development (GED) diploma and seven years of paralegal experience performing delegated, substantive legal work; or an equivalent combination of education and experience.

Management preferences: Experience with eCourts/Odyssey and Pacer, eDiscovery tools such as Everlaw, and research tools such as Lexis and Westlaw.

To receive credit for your work history and credentials, you must list the information on the online application form. Resumes and cover letters will not substitute for a completed application.
 
Applications must be submitted by 5:00 PM on the closing date.
 
Transcripts: If a transcript has been requested, your application will be considered incomplete if you do not provide one. Using a photograph of your diploma is not acceptable.

Credit for foreign degrees will only be given if verification of degree certification is attached to your application. To determine US equivalency, transcripts for foreign degrees have to be evaluated by an organization like World Education Services.
 
Veterans Preference: Applicants seeking Veteran's Preference must attach a copy of their DD-214 or discharge orders.
 
Applicants seeking National Guard Preference must attach an NGB 23A (RPAS) if they are a current member of the NC National Guard and are in good standing. If you are a former member of the NC National Guard who served for at least six years and was discharged under honorable conditions, you must attach either a DD256 or NGB 22.
  
Help and follow-up:
Application status: To check the status of your application, please log in to your account. Upon the closing date, applications are "Under Review" and will be screened by Human Resources for the qualified applicants.

The hiring process may take an average of 6 – 8 weeks.  

NeoGov Help Line: If you are having technical issues submitting your application, please call the NeoGov Help Line at 855-524-5627.
 
The NC Department of Justice is an Equal Opportunity Employer. The NC Department of Justice uses Merit-Based Recruitment to select from among the most qualified applicants to fill positions subject to the State Human Resources Act.
 
  CONTACT INFORMATION:
  NC Department of Justice
  Human Resources Office
  919-716-6490
  HumanResources@NCDOJ.GOV