The Respective Roles

The roles of legal assistant and legal secretary are sometimes used interchangeably, which can be confusing even for those within the legal profession. Of course, with job titles and responsibilities evolving within the legal sector, the difference in legal terms is not always clear. It is important to recognise, however, that there are distinct duties and responsibilities associated with each role.
While both legal assistants and legal secretaries may produce legal documents, legal assistants have a more in-depth role that requires special training and relevant qualifications. Legal secretaries are often responsible for the whole office or department’s documentation and can even oversee other secretaries and administrative staff, whereas legal assistants are likely to focus solely on the specialist work associated with one specific case. For this reason, further training to become a paralegal is essential for legal assistants who wish to progress within their careers .
Employees in legal assistant positions are also likely to deal with clients and witnesses throughout a case. Their responsibility to engage and build positive working relationships with these individuals can mean longer hours than those undertaken by legal secretaries, particularly if meetings with clients and witnesses take place after office hours.
Because legal assistants have a more involved role in terms of specialist duties, they are required to have a comprehensive understanding of the litigation process and wider legal practices. Legal assistants are called upon to provide support that is more analytical and consultative than that of legal secretaries – the latter may be responsible for practical duties such as managing filing systems or overseeing invoicing procedures.
Both legal assistant and legal secretary roles are essential for maintaining a smooth office environment and high standards of organisation, performance and service within any legal or law enforcement department.

What is the Legal Definition of Heat of Passion?

Heat of passion is broadly defined as being in a state of emotional strain brought on by a witnessing or experience of a triggering event. This triggering event usually follows stereotypical elements such as provocation, argument and violence. In a legal sense, this phenomenon is mostly interpreted as a narrow set of mental states that can diminish a person’s criminal intent and provide an affirmative defense to a crime. It has long been noted in courts that although words cannot legally hurt a person, their effect can be equally as damaging as physical force. An example of a ‘triggering event’ would be, for instance, the discovery of a spouse committing adultery . The heat of passion defense permits murder to be downgraded to voluntary manslaughter when the defendant committed the killing under the intense heat of passion caused by "adequate provocation." The law considers provocation adequate when it is so extreme that the passions of a reasonable person would be heated "to boiling" as a result of the provocation. In many jurisdictions, the provocation must cause the defendant to momentarily lose control of his or her emotions and engage in physically violent behavior. Further, it cannot be the consequence of a mere reasonable reaction to a situation; there must be adequate proof that the provocation led to an actual loss of control. For the provocation to be considered adequate, it must be of sufficient severity that it would cause a reasonable person to lose self-control.

Hartford’s Legal Landscape in Brief

Hartford, the capital city of Connecticut, serves as a commercial and cultural hub in the region of the county. A vast array of businesses makes up the working landscape, with lawyers as some of the leading professionals in the area. The city mixes the old with the new, and formal and informal get-togethers for coffee or drinks perpetuate the formality and warmth of the New England town. Many law firms reside in the downtown region along Asylum Avenue, offering many services to clients throughout New England. Some of the top law firms are located in Hartford due to the type of work often required of corporate law firms.
The financial industry is one of the most substantial in the area. Many banks and financial firms set up large organizations within Hartford. Seeing such a concentration of financial institutions, naturalism for securities law has increased over the years. Additionally, the city is also home to around 29 Fortune 500 companies . Hartford offers some of the largest insurance companies in the world, adding to the density of financial services law firms in the area.
Probate law firms also serve clients throughout Hartford. Families in the greater Hartford area often accumulate valuable assets such as homes and retirement accounts. When those assets pass on, there is often confusion about who inherits what, and that knowledge often comes from a good probating law firm. Families across the region want to get affairs in order, and probate law firms can answer those questions and take the hassle out of what can become a difficult situation later in life.
The caseload of Family Law in Hartford focuses on divorce, modification of support, child custody, alimony and other matters that deal with the family. Several family law firms in Hartford offer dedicated practitioners to deal with all family issues, walking clients through the often-difficult process of family law issues while finding favorable solutions.

Overview of the Law Office Study Program

The Law Office Study Program ("LOSP") is one of the most unheralded and seldom utilized forms of legal training available in California. The LOSP allows a person to learn and practice law, under the supervision of an attorney, outside of a traditional law school setting. It is a four-year program of practical legal training provided by a practicing attorney, or judge , who acts as a mentor to a protégé/trainee. This is a nonclassroom based legal educational option. The trainee and supervising attorney must work together for 18 hours a week.
The program was implemented in 1878. Horace Adams received the first certificate of admission into the Bar after he had read law in the office of Edward Hall, a prominent San Francisco attorney.
The name of this unique program was recently changed from the four-year Law Office Study and the Mentor Judge Study programs to the Law Office Study Program due to changes to California Rules of Court Rules 4.35-4.42 and the Committee of Bar Examiners’ Minimum Qualifications for Unaccredited Law School (Rule 4.75).