Paralegal 67-626

RESIDENCE REQUIREMENTS: CANDIDATES MUST HAVE BEEN LEGAL RESIDENTS OF ERIE COUNTY FOR AT LEAST ONE MONTH IMMEDIATELY PRECEDING THE DATE OF THE WRITTEN TEST AND MUST BE LEGAL RESIDENTS OF ERIE COUNTY AT THE TIME OF APPOINTMENT. There are four anticipated vacancies at the Erie County Department of Social Services and four anticipated vacancies at the Erie County District Attorney's Office. The eligible list resulting from this examination will be used to fill other appropriate vacancies which may occur in municipalities or districts under the jurisdiction of Erie County Civil Service while this list is active. *Salaries may vary at other municipalities or agencies.
Preference may be given to successful candidates who have been residents of the municipality in which the appointment is to be made for one month preceding the date of the certification of the eligible list and who are residents of the municipality at the time of appointment. Non-residents may be required to become a resident of the appointing municipality if local law so states.
A Paralegal performs paralegal duties in a County department or Municipal office;

Assists with preparation of rough drafts of briefs and various legal documents as assigned and prepares digests of selected decisions and opinions;

Incorporates legal references and includes an analysis of precedents involved in relation to the case or matter under discussion;

Searches legal reference files and other sources for information and data required by the Attorney in conducting interviews and answering correspondence;

Assembles exhibits affidavits, legal documents, etc., for the use of Attorneys in the preparation for trial of cases and collects any additional information which is needed;

Verifies citations and statutory references contained in legal documents against original sources such as legal texts, reports, etc., making certain that they are correct and in complete conformance with the source material;

Prepares drafts of motions and responses to motions, takes complaints, determines status of cases and responds to inquiries;

Assists with preparation of standardized forms concerning extradition return of bail and other proceedings ancillary to prosecution of criminal cases;

Reviews cases scheduled for court and insures quality of case preparation is high;

Presents cases before hearing officer; Reviews and enhances court face sheets;

Completes court turn-around document; Prepares and follows up on summonses;

Reports procedural changes in Family Court to OCSE Administration;

Maintains specialized knowledge of regulations and laws pertaining to Family Court;

Field work as required;

Researches on appeals;

Informs Department of court decisions and returns files to the appropriate unit;

Prepares and types petitions, condemnation proceedings, affidavits, and all legal notices for department or Municipality;

Collects data; does legal research under supervision;

Notarizes all documents for the department or Municipality and handles notarization for the public;

Coordinates filing of all local laws with Secretary of State and Department of Audit and Control;

Supervises bonding requirements and procedures;

Assists in drawing up amendments to local laws;

Processes for court action complaints made by the public.

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS: Candidates must meet one of the following requirements on or before the date of the written test:

A. Possession of an Associate's degree* in Paralegal studies; or:

B. Possession of a Bachelor's degree* including completion of 15 credit hours in Paralegal studies and six (6) months experience as a Paralegal/Legal Assistant; or:

C. Possession of a Bachelor's Degree* and one (1) year experience as a Paralegal or Legal Assistant; or:

D. Completion of an approved Paralegal Certificate program and one (1) year of experience as a Paralegal/Legal Assistant; or

E. An equivalent combination of training and experience as defined by the limits of (A), (B), (C) and (D).

SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS:

In some departments or Municipalities a typing ability of 25 wpm will be required;

Applicants for designated positions in the Department of Social Services that may have access to federal tax information to perform his/her job duties shall be subject to a suitability background check investigation, including FBI fingerprinting, local law enforcement check, and verification check of citizenship/residency. A criminal record does not necessarily disqualify applicants from employment, rather an individualized determination will be made. The cost of the background check will be assumed by the Department of Social Services.

Notes:

1. *Your degree/credits must have been awarded by a college or university accredited by a regional, national, or specialized agency recognized as an accrediting agency by the U.S. Department of Education/U.S. Secretary of Education. If your degree was awarded by an educational institution outside the United States and its territories, you must provide independent verification of equivalency. A list of acceptable companies who provide this service can be found on the Internet at http://www.cs.ny.gov/jobseeker/degrees.cfm. You must pay the required evaluation fee.

2. Verifiable part-time and/or volunteer experience will be pro-rated toward meeting full-time experience requirements.

Notice to Candidates: Transcripts will now be accepted by the Department of Personnel ONLY at time of application.

All subsequent transcripts must be submitted at time of interview.

Scopes / Subjects of examination: A test designed to evaluate knowledge, skills and /or abilities in the following areas:
NOTICE TO CANDIDATES: Unless otherwise noted, candidates are permitted to use quiet, hand held, solar or battery powered calculators. Devices with typewriter keyboards, "Spell Checkers", "Personal Digital Assistants", "Address Books", "Language Translators", "Dictionaries", or any similar devices are prohibited. You may not bring books or other reference materials.

NOTICE TO CANDIDATES WHO ARE ALSO TAKING ANOTHER CIVIL SERVICE EXAM(S) ON THIS DATE (See Below)
(IF YOU ARE TAKING 2 OR MORE ERIE COUNTY EXAMS ON THIS DATE IT IS NOT NECESSARY TO CALL)
INFORMATION FOR CANDIDATES

HOW TO APPLY: Either online by clicking "Apply" on the top right of the online exam announcement or by printing a paper application from erie.gov, Erie County Application for Examination or Appointment (Download PDF reader), or if you do not have internet access you may pick up an application form at the Erie County Personnel Department, 95 Franklin Street, Room 604, Buffalo, New York 14202. Forms are also available at Buffalo and Erie County Public Libraries and at Town, Village and School District administrative offices.

Completed forms should then be returned to the Erie County Personnel Department. In addition, candidates must request their colleges to send transcripts to the Erie County Personnel Department or attach transcripts to your application. No applications will be evaluated until all the above information, including transcripts, is received.

MILITARY STATUS: Active duty military personnel may file an application for this exam. A special military make-up examination will be conducted for any member of the armed forces of the United States who has duly filed a timely application but who was deprived of the opportunity to compete in the scheduled exam due to active military duty. Special conditions apply to these requests and may be reviewed at the Erie County Department of Personnel.

VETERANS: Disabled and non-disabled veterans as defined in Section 85, New York State Civil Service Law, will have 10 and 5 points, respectively added to their earned scores if successful in the OPEN examination. You must claim these credits when you file application but you have an option to waive them any time prior to appointment. If you have already used these credits for a permanent position in NYS, you may not claim them again.

In conformance with section 85-a of the Civil Service Law, CHILDREN OF FIREFIGHTERS AND POLICE OFFICERS KILLED IN THE LINE OF DUTY shall be entitled to receive an additional ten points in a competitive examination for original appointment in the same municipality in which his or her parent has served. If you are qualified to participate in this examination and are a child of a firefighter or police officer killed in the line of duty in this municipality, please inform this office of this matter when you submit your application for examination. A candidate claiming such credit has a minimum of two months from the application deadline to provide the necessary documentation to verify additional credit eligibility. However, no credit may be added after the eligible list has been established.

SPECIAL ARRANGEMENTS: Applicants whose religious beliefs prevent their taking examinations before sundown on Saturday and physically handicapped candidates who require special examination facilities should so inform the Erie County Department of Personnel, by a separately mailed letter at the earliest possible date before the test.

MORE THAN ONE EXAM ON THE SAME DAY: If you have applied for more than one exam on the same day you MUST make arrangements to take ALL of the examinations at ONE examination test site. If you have applied for both STATE and LOCAL government examinations taking place on the same day, you must take all of your examinations at the STATE examination center. If you have applied for both COUNTY and CITY government examinations taking place on the same day, you must take all of your examinations at the COUNTY examination center. You are responsible to notify EACH Civil Service Agency no later than TWO WEEKS before the examination date on which you are taking multiple examinations by submitting a Cross-Filer form; EACH Civil Service Agency has their own Cross-Filer form. The Erie County Cross-Filer form can be found at https://www3.erie.gov/employment/applications. If you are taking multiple exams on the same date with Erie County only, you do not have to file a Cross-Filer form.

Candidates taking more than one exam in DIFFERENT exam series will be allowed the specified length of time for each exam, up to a maximum of eight hours. Example: If you are taking one exam which allows six hours and another exam in a different series which allows four hours, you must complete both tests in eight hours, but no more time can be spent on each exam than the time allotted for that exam. Candidates taking more than one exam in the SAME exam series will be allowed up to the specified length of time for each exam. Example: If you are taking two exams in the same series with a maximum time of five hours for each exam, you can spend no more than five hours to complete both exams.

ADMISSION TO EXAMINATION: Notice to appear for the test will be conditional as review of application for minimum requirements may not be made until after the written test. Call or write this Department if you have not received your notice 3 days before the date of the test. You may not be admitted to the examination room without official notice.

RATINGS REQUIRED: Tests are rated on a scale of 100 with a passing mark at 70. Unless the announcement states otherwise, you must pass the written test and the oral test, if any. Test instructions may further divide the tests into parts and set minimum standards for each part.

TRAINING AND EXPERIENCE: If a subject of the examination, training and experience may ...