Job Title: Paralegal
Starting Salary: £33,366 opportunity to progress to £36,124 pay award pending
Hours: 37.0
Location: Stevenage/Hybrid
Contract Type: Permanent
Directorate: Resources
About The Team
The childcare litigation team are part of the Legal Services team at Hertfordshire County Council. The Lexcel accredited department provides a full legal service across all specialisms to both the county council and other public sector bodies.
The child litigation team consists of 3 Principal lawyers, 17 lawyers and 9 paralegals who provide a high-quality litigation and advice service to the Director of Children’s Services and the Children’s Services Department. The team deal with a variety of public law proceedings under the Children Act 1989 and Adoption and Children Act 2002, as well as providing advice and support with the public law outline pre-proceedings process.
The paralegals in the team work closely together and individually supporting the lawyers to progress cases and ensuring the needs of our client department are met.
The team have excellent working relationships with external stakeholders such as the court service, CAFCASS, police colleagues and others.
The team is hardworking, friendly, and supportive and has recently been recognised and awarded by the county council receiving the Resources directorate award for ‘Acting with Integrity.’
About The Role
As a paralegal in the team you will work with the lawyer responsible for the case to:
* maintain and revise court bundles and ensure that these are sent to the Court and parties to proceedings within required timescales and in accordance with the Child Care Litigation Team protocols
* undertake routine case management, for example acknowledge receipt of statements and documents, file and serve evidence, and liaise with the Court and CAFCASS when issuing new care proceedings applications;
* draft straightforward legal documents including care order applications, part 25 applications, letters before proceedings, briefs to counsel, and letters of instruction to experts
* obtain costs estimates and availability of expert witnesses.
* gather evidence (including hair strand testing and DNA testing), and documentation, including taking statements from lay witnesses; preparing witness templates and dealing with the administration tasks necessary to ensure final hearings take place.
* participate in any other areas of work in the Legal Services Department, including attending PLO pre-proceedings meeting on occasions, when required to do so by a Senior Lawyer/Principal Lawyer.
About You
Essential:
* have as a minimum a law degree, post graduate diploma in law or have passed the Institute of Legal Executives Level 3 examination.
* be self-reliant and able to carry out day to day tasks without the need for close supervision.
* have excellent oral and written communication skills with the ability to forge and maintain relationships with a wide range of professionals.
* have the ability to work under pressure and be able to organise and prioritise your workload.
Desirable:
* Ideally you will have access to your own transport and be willing to use this for travelling around the County and further afield to different offices and Courts.
It's no secret it is a challenging time for local government. With a wide-ranging variety of cases it’s an exciting time to join us and develop your skills and gain experience as part of our hard-working, friendly, supportive team.
We want to hear from you if you are keen to progress your career in local government, and have great interpersonal, organisational, and drafting skills and want to work in a dynamic team.
This job role is within the Corporate Services, level CORP9 job profile. Please locate this via:
Job profiles - Corporate services
To hear more about this opportunity please contact Luthfa Vagan (01992 588993) – Tues-Fri for an informal discussion about the role.
We welcome applications from candidates who currently reside in the UK with established proof of right to work documentation. We are not able to offer sponsorship at this time for this role.
Interview Date :w/c 9th June 2025
Benefits of working for us
How to apply
As part of your application, please upload your most recent CV. Ensure your CV is up to date with your employment history (including any employment gaps), and including any training/qualifications. We encourage you to include examples of where you have demonstrated the requirements/criteria in the advert / job profile to allow the panel to fully recognise your skills and abilities. You will have the opportunity to include a short covering paragraph within your application to give us a little more information about your skills, knowledge, and experiences.
Additional information
Disability Confident
We are proud to be a Disability Confident employer and guarantee an interview to anyone disclosing a disability whose application meets the minimum criteria for the post.
Driving Required
You’ll need to have the ability to drive and/or travel around Hertfordshire, either using your own mode of transport or a company car to travel to other locations.
English Fluency
The ability to converse at ease with members of the public and provide advice in accurate spoken English is essential for the post (for those whose language is a signed language the provision of a sign language interpreter who speaks English to the necessary standard of fluency will be required). Further information about the legal requirement can be found here. #J-18808-Ljbffr