Contractors – Why You Should Retain a Paralegal

As a contractor, you might be unaware that having a paralegal represent you can save you time and money when you’re dealing with clients who have chosen to be difficult by holding out on your rightfully earned payment.

But what does a paralegal do and how can they help your business? In this article, we'll discuss the role of the paralegal and explain how they can help your business run more smoothly.

We'll also provide tips for working with a paralegal so you can get the most out of this valuable relationship.

What Does A Paralegal Do?

A paralegal is a trained legal professional that is able to represent you in Small Claims Court, which can save you the time, headache, and difficulty of representing yourself. With finely-tuned areas of specialty that can be extremely helpful to a contracting business, De Palma & Associates knows all the tricky ins and outs when assisting contractors in collecting what they’re owed.

How Can A Paralegal Help Your Contracting Business

Being a contractor can lead to some incredible rewards when you're dealing with the right clients. Unfortunately, not everyone you provide work for treats you or your service with the respect you deserve - that's where a paralegal can help!

For example, let's say you've completed a job for a client and they're refusing to pay your invoice. A paralegal can help you draft a pre-litigation letter in the hopes of amicably resolving the issue. If needed, the paralegal can take action in Small Claims Court to collect what you're owed, which can free up your time so that you can focus on the clients who actually appreciate and pay for the services rendered.

While a written contract is certainly preferable it isn’t always necessary to pursue an action in Small Claims Court so don’t shy away from this option simply because you don’t have a written contract with the client. A paralegal can assist with presenting your case in a manner that shows there was an implied or verbal contract in place based on the actions of the parties.

Recovering Legal Fees in Small Claims Court

Did you know a successful party in Small Claims Court can request for legal fees to be awarded against the opposing party in addition to the amount owed and interest? Having a discussion with your paralegal about their fees and possible recovery of fees in court is extremely important. That is why we charge flat rates for every step of a Claim and these rates are presented to the client upfront – transparency is of the utmost importance to us at De Palma & Associates Legal Services.

With offices located in Wasaga Beach, Orillia. and Barrie, De Palma & Associates can provide legal representation for Small Claims Court cases, landlord & tenant disputes, traffic tickets, criminal pardons (record suspensions), and document commissioning/notarizing throughout the Georgian Bay area and the GTA. If you have any questions or require legal representation, give us a call at De Palma & Associates - (705) 429-2401 (Barrie and Wasaga Beach or (705) 909-0805 (Orillia).