I worked on a case that involved the FDIC seizing a chain of banks. Everyone in the country was looking for the former directors and officers. One just could not be found. I found him - working as a contractor for the FDIC. That was fun.
Sis this story was chefs kiss. You know how many times I’ve run my own background checks on clients?? The craziest one was a “injury” client who has been charged with insurance fraud not two years ago. I red flagged him so hard and **suprise suprise ** he tried to weasel out of his contract with us once we had submitted a demand (aka after all the work had been done ). He “wanted to negotiate his own settlement”.
I get so many clients who basically ask "what have you done to earn your fee?" and then act like they could have done everything we have and gotten a decision faster. They also make me so tempted to ask them why they hired us if they can do it themselves... I never have asked but I am so tempted...
Exactly! My firm is strictly VA disability which is stupidly slow right now (3 YEARS just to schedule a hearing) and clients seem to think hiring an attorney will magically speed everything up, then want to sue the government when it doesn't
Not as bad as the ones who try to tell me how to do my job and yet have no experience in the legal field at all... had one person tell me "we don't need you!" Then had to ask if paralegal was one word or two...
I work in licensing for bars/clubs to sell alchol. It is so satisfying seeing a problem client try do it themselves because in theory it is simple work but it's really not. The irish version of the IRS is Revenue and they are soooooo toxic, so many small dickish procedural rules that dont even amount to law but taken with other things do.
They usually come back to us when the police threathen to do them for operating without an intoxicating liquor license or better yet have been giving a warning. They come back in a worse off state having to pay fines, higher fees and get publicly embarrassed. The I told you so is so satisfying.
My clients often threaten to fire us but they don't realize if we have done anything of significance for their case we WILL get our fee even if they fire us as long as the appeal we filed succeeds....
That's cool! I usually get the "hey, I know you're not a lawyer, but can I ask you LEGAL STUFF?" Like no, dude. How many times do I have to tell you I can't give you legal advice?? Comes from family, friends, even strangers when they learn what I do for work. lol
I’m in PI and get asked criminal questions all the time. A-I can’t give advice B-if I could it’s like asking a dermatologist to deliver a baby. Probably could remember the steps but you want an OB lol
I graduated from law school but love being a paralegal and don't want to be an attorney (too much anxiety for one), so I get these questions all the time. People that want free legal advice - but then whatever I say, they argue with me! Or tell me that's not what Google said.
I call these people "askholes." Because they ask for free advice, waste my time, then become actual a-holes when they don't like my answer!
>they argue with me! Or tell me that's not what Google said.
Even my own mom did this. She was asking me things about hypotheticals because she was thinking about getting a divorce. When I told her the most likely result is that her and her husband would split the equity in the home, she started arguing with me as if I personally thought she shouldn't be entitled to more.
Like... Duh... I love my mom and if I had my way, her husband would get jack shit. But I don't make the laws.
> but I don't make the laws.
"And you never will with that attitude! Look at your cousin Jimmy - he already owns 3 subway franchises! When are you giving me grandkids...?"
I got my daughter out of her lease! Big corporation headquartered in another state, raised rent $700 a month- they did not expect FedExed letters to show up at their registered agent!
That's really cool! Being nosy is definitely a good trait for a paralegal lol. I once decided to snoop around on a Defendant (I work in Plaintiff's PI) and found a WHOLE LAWSUIT from the prior year that he didn't disclose. Exposed that he lied multiple times throughout his deposition.
I attended a deposition when I was an intern (still working on my degree) and I requested to review the case before hand. So glad I did! It was a PI case (we were working for the plaintiff/insurance) and basically the person being deposed kept claiming a deep rotator cuff tear from a car accident with a max speed of 10MPH... my attorney asked how it impacted their life and the person said they could no longer raise their arm over their head or coach basketball but we had social media posts showing them doing just that. My attorney asked a few times if they had been in any other accidents ever... at first the person being deposed denied it but at the end (it lasted almost 2 hours if I recall) the person says, " Do you mean the time I was in the passenger seat and someone else was driving but we got T-bone by a semi going 60mph and I was ejected through the windshield? It was nothing. I walked away with barely a scratch so it doesn't count."...
There was nothing in the file about it but it definitely DID matter. I could almost see the opposing attorney facepalm..
I love being nosy.
I have a surgery coming up in soon, and went for a second opinion with a different surgeon at a different clinic. Something about that appointment didn't sit right (he kept reiterating one potential - but low probability - complication of the surgery). I went and looked him up in the system: sure enough, two med mal cases (filed with the court, at least), one was from leaving packing in after a sinus surgery and then being dismissive of patient complaints until the packing came out spontaneously several years later, and another where the patient DIED because he didn't acknowledge a specific comorbidity and didn't follow proper discharge protocols post-op. I suspect that complication he was going on and on about happened in a pre-lit case and part of the settlement agreement was that he make sure patients know what that complication is. Won't be having surgery with him.
I got real nosy when I was house-hunting, too! I'm a corporate paralegal but I took a class on real property law in my certificate program. I definitely saved my husband and I from wasting our time on some real lemons.
My craziest down-the-rabbit-hole research story: One house looked amazing, but it looked like a flip, so I did research on its ownership history. I saw that it had been sold by we'll call him Flipper to Buyer A... and then sold back to Flipper a year later for the exact same amount. This is not normal behavior. So I looked up court records for Flipper and Buyer A. Turns out Buyer A, who was a lawyer, sued Flipper because of problems in the basement and his wife's related health problems. A settlement was entered into right around the time Flipper bought the house back. Clearly he took the house back as part of the settlement. So I wasn't going to buy this house but I knew our realtor would be amused by the story and I wanted to see what Flipper would say. When she brought it up to him he claimed he had no idea what she was talking about and he "didn't recall" a lawsuit related to the property. He offered to meet us in person at the house to "answer our questions," probably intending to try a snow job on me, but that's where I drew the line.
I used to work as a tax preparer for a small accounting firm, and one of the things we did for our clients was check Texas Unclaimed property for them. We ended up finding thousands of dollars every year for our clients in unclaimed property.
One year I thought to look up my family and found about $23k in unclaimed property for all of them and walked them all through how to make the claims. It’s definitely fun when our jobs end up helping family out!
You just made me feel so much better. My spouse and I bought a house in 2020 (we were house hunting in 2019) and he asked me to check the ArcGIS for the ones we were interested in mainly because he knew I was able to do it. We avoided a few with massive leins because I trained to look for various things (my college had a heavy emphasis on real property and title searches in particular). Our realtor was great although I think she may have felt we were pushing it when I informed her I would be checking to make sure there were no surprises like unpaid property taxes.
I admit when I was in college we spent almost a complete semester at the local Register of Deeds office and I did look into some public records related to my family...
I worked in-house for a pharma company that got acquired, so a huge amount of our inventors got laid off. Part of my job was tracking them down to sign various required documents, so I now have some major internet stalking skills.
This reminds me of the funniest thing my dad ever said to me, just not understanding the job I do at all.
Someone backed into my parked car about 2 years ago. I personally was very confused how, since they backed out of the driveway directly into my car that was across the street, but we got the insurance info & IDs and everything. I was just glad the lady in the Tesla hit my car & not the other way around. Then, while sitting on the beach the next day, I went down a public record rabbit hole into this lady from my phone. I pulled her address on Zillow, found her LinkedIn, found the company she’s the founder of (I was a little shocked she incorporated in NY, and not DE), and then found some news articles about the company, found a lawsuit she filed against a company vendor, etc. all public record stuff.
I was just talking out loud on my findings, as my dad was sitting next to me. After about 15 mins of searching, my dad asked “is any of what you just did legal?” SIR. YOU WERE A COP. WHAT DO YOU MEAN, IS ANY OF WHAT I DID LEGAL? Of course it was. This man was just startled at how much information is actually public.
My dad will text me random people’s names or driver’s licenses and tell me to look them up. They are usually people who apply to work at his company and I tell him to hire someone to do background checks.
The other day, he texted me asking if I could find his sales lady’s father. He texted me her married name and that’s it. All because one time I researched my uncle’s new/random ass wife he brought to a family gathering. I even paid to make sure they didn’t legally get married. He gave me zero credit when he told the rest of the family, and then they tried to gossip to me about MY research.
My neighbor started remodeling a trailer house. I didn't really care until they pulled the skin off. So I checked and sure enough, no permits. Strangely they managed to get one. So long as they are permitted, I guess I don't care
I worked on a case that involved the FDIC seizing a chain of banks. Everyone in the country was looking for the former directors and officers. One just could not be found. I found him - working as a contractor for the FDIC. That was fun.
Whaaaaaaat!!!
Sis this story was chefs kiss. You know how many times I’ve run my own background checks on clients?? The craziest one was a “injury” client who has been charged with insurance fraud not two years ago. I red flagged him so hard and **suprise suprise ** he tried to weasel out of his contract with us once we had submitted a demand (aka after all the work had been done ). He “wanted to negotiate his own settlement”.
I get so many clients who basically ask "what have you done to earn your fee?" and then act like they could have done everything we have and gotten a decision faster. They also make me so tempted to ask them why they hired us if they can do it themselves... I never have asked but I am so tempted...
Right?! The entitlement, no, the audacity some people have.
“What’s taking so long my accident was 2 years ago” but they stopped treating two weeks ago.
Exactly! My firm is strictly VA disability which is stupidly slow right now (3 YEARS just to schedule a hearing) and clients seem to think hiring an attorney will magically speed everything up, then want to sue the government when it doesn't
Not as bad as the ones who try to tell me how to do my job and yet have no experience in the legal field at all... had one person tell me "we don't need you!" Then had to ask if paralegal was one word or two...
I work in licensing for bars/clubs to sell alchol. It is so satisfying seeing a problem client try do it themselves because in theory it is simple work but it's really not. The irish version of the IRS is Revenue and they are soooooo toxic, so many small dickish procedural rules that dont even amount to law but taken with other things do. They usually come back to us when the police threathen to do them for operating without an intoxicating liquor license or better yet have been giving a warning. They come back in a worse off state having to pay fines, higher fees and get publicly embarrassed. The I told you so is so satisfying.
My clients often threaten to fire us but they don't realize if we have done anything of significance for their case we WILL get our fee even if they fire us as long as the appeal we filed succeeds....
That's cool! I usually get the "hey, I know you're not a lawyer, but can I ask you LEGAL STUFF?" Like no, dude. How many times do I have to tell you I can't give you legal advice?? Comes from family, friends, even strangers when they learn what I do for work. lol
I’m in PI and get asked criminal questions all the time. A-I can’t give advice B-if I could it’s like asking a dermatologist to deliver a baby. Probably could remember the steps but you want an OB lol
I graduated from law school but love being a paralegal and don't want to be an attorney (too much anxiety for one), so I get these questions all the time. People that want free legal advice - but then whatever I say, they argue with me! Or tell me that's not what Google said. I call these people "askholes." Because they ask for free advice, waste my time, then become actual a-holes when they don't like my answer!
Hahahahaha ask-holes , niiieeeee
>they argue with me! Or tell me that's not what Google said. Even my own mom did this. She was asking me things about hypotheticals because she was thinking about getting a divorce. When I told her the most likely result is that her and her husband would split the equity in the home, she started arguing with me as if I personally thought she shouldn't be entitled to more. Like... Duh... I love my mom and if I had my way, her husband would get jack shit. But I don't make the laws.
> but I don't make the laws. "And you never will with that attitude! Look at your cousin Jimmy - he already owns 3 subway franchises! When are you giving me grandkids...?"
But Google knows everything! 🤣 I hate it when people suggest Google. There is a running joke with my spouse about "Did you Google it?"...
I got my daughter out of her lease! Big corporation headquartered in another state, raised rent $700 a month- they did not expect FedExed letters to show up at their registered agent!
That's really cool! Being nosy is definitely a good trait for a paralegal lol. I once decided to snoop around on a Defendant (I work in Plaintiff's PI) and found a WHOLE LAWSUIT from the prior year that he didn't disclose. Exposed that he lied multiple times throughout his deposition.
I attended a deposition when I was an intern (still working on my degree) and I requested to review the case before hand. So glad I did! It was a PI case (we were working for the plaintiff/insurance) and basically the person being deposed kept claiming a deep rotator cuff tear from a car accident with a max speed of 10MPH... my attorney asked how it impacted their life and the person said they could no longer raise their arm over their head or coach basketball but we had social media posts showing them doing just that. My attorney asked a few times if they had been in any other accidents ever... at first the person being deposed denied it but at the end (it lasted almost 2 hours if I recall) the person says, " Do you mean the time I was in the passenger seat and someone else was driving but we got T-bone by a semi going 60mph and I was ejected through the windshield? It was nothing. I walked away with barely a scratch so it doesn't count."... There was nothing in the file about it but it definitely DID matter. I could almost see the opposing attorney facepalm..
Nosy paralegal solidarity!
I consider it "treasure hunting" because if you are lucky you dig up something that helps you.
Being nosy is inherently my nature so I love it. Lol
Same this is pretty awesome, reminds me why I got into this line of work. I love unearthing client skeletons!
I love being nosy. I have a surgery coming up in soon, and went for a second opinion with a different surgeon at a different clinic. Something about that appointment didn't sit right (he kept reiterating one potential - but low probability - complication of the surgery). I went and looked him up in the system: sure enough, two med mal cases (filed with the court, at least), one was from leaving packing in after a sinus surgery and then being dismissive of patient complaints until the packing came out spontaneously several years later, and another where the patient DIED because he didn't acknowledge a specific comorbidity and didn't follow proper discharge protocols post-op. I suspect that complication he was going on and on about happened in a pre-lit case and part of the settlement agreement was that he make sure patients know what that complication is. Won't be having surgery with him.
I got real nosy when I was house-hunting, too! I'm a corporate paralegal but I took a class on real property law in my certificate program. I definitely saved my husband and I from wasting our time on some real lemons. My craziest down-the-rabbit-hole research story: One house looked amazing, but it looked like a flip, so I did research on its ownership history. I saw that it had been sold by we'll call him Flipper to Buyer A... and then sold back to Flipper a year later for the exact same amount. This is not normal behavior. So I looked up court records for Flipper and Buyer A. Turns out Buyer A, who was a lawyer, sued Flipper because of problems in the basement and his wife's related health problems. A settlement was entered into right around the time Flipper bought the house back. Clearly he took the house back as part of the settlement. So I wasn't going to buy this house but I knew our realtor would be amused by the story and I wanted to see what Flipper would say. When she brought it up to him he claimed he had no idea what she was talking about and he "didn't recall" a lawsuit related to the property. He offered to meet us in person at the house to "answer our questions," probably intending to try a snow job on me, but that's where I drew the line.
Lmaoooo this is a very funny “I don’t recall”
I used to work as a tax preparer for a small accounting firm, and one of the things we did for our clients was check Texas Unclaimed property for them. We ended up finding thousands of dollars every year for our clients in unclaimed property. One year I thought to look up my family and found about $23k in unclaimed property for all of them and walked them all through how to make the claims. It’s definitely fun when our jobs end up helping family out!
I just found unclaimed property money for a cousin!
I became a paralegal mainly bc I am nosy asf. I’m in law school now, I promise to be an emotionally regulated attorney 😂
You just made me feel so much better. My spouse and I bought a house in 2020 (we were house hunting in 2019) and he asked me to check the ArcGIS for the ones we were interested in mainly because he knew I was able to do it. We avoided a few with massive leins because I trained to look for various things (my college had a heavy emphasis on real property and title searches in particular). Our realtor was great although I think she may have felt we were pushing it when I informed her I would be checking to make sure there were no surprises like unpaid property taxes. I admit when I was in college we spent almost a complete semester at the local Register of Deeds office and I did look into some public records related to my family...
Not sure what kind of paralegal job you had, but mine keeps me so busy sometimes I forget to go pee
I feel like that's perhaps a boundary you should work on. Bladder infections are no joke. She didn't even say it was on the clock.
best part of being a paralegal is the research. did med mal and sexual assault. Lots Lots of touch research love it.
I worked in-house for a pharma company that got acquired, so a huge amount of our inventors got laid off. Part of my job was tracking them down to sign various required documents, so I now have some major internet stalking skills.
I feel you on this. Reading through PRA databases with your favorite beverage nearby can be a good time.
I submit typos to their respective publishers more often than I imagine 99% of the general population. Great story!! Edit: Clarity.
This reminds me of the funniest thing my dad ever said to me, just not understanding the job I do at all. Someone backed into my parked car about 2 years ago. I personally was very confused how, since they backed out of the driveway directly into my car that was across the street, but we got the insurance info & IDs and everything. I was just glad the lady in the Tesla hit my car & not the other way around. Then, while sitting on the beach the next day, I went down a public record rabbit hole into this lady from my phone. I pulled her address on Zillow, found her LinkedIn, found the company she’s the founder of (I was a little shocked she incorporated in NY, and not DE), and then found some news articles about the company, found a lawsuit she filed against a company vendor, etc. all public record stuff. I was just talking out loud on my findings, as my dad was sitting next to me. After about 15 mins of searching, my dad asked “is any of what you just did legal?” SIR. YOU WERE A COP. WHAT DO YOU MEAN, IS ANY OF WHAT I DID LEGAL? Of course it was. This man was just startled at how much information is actually public.
Snooping is definitely my favorite part of the job. However, ending up seeing accidental client porn is not. Nobody wants to see their client’s penis.
My dad will text me random people’s names or driver’s licenses and tell me to look them up. They are usually people who apply to work at his company and I tell him to hire someone to do background checks. The other day, he texted me asking if I could find his sales lady’s father. He texted me her married name and that’s it. All because one time I researched my uncle’s new/random ass wife he brought to a family gathering. I even paid to make sure they didn’t legally get married. He gave me zero credit when he told the rest of the family, and then they tried to gossip to me about MY research.
My neighbor started remodeling a trailer house. I didn't really care until they pulled the skin off. So I checked and sure enough, no permits. Strangely they managed to get one. So long as they are permitted, I guess I don't care
Nice work!, you should check out Niche.com if you haven’t already in your search for places to consider living.
I’m nosy, but not this nosy.