[blindlaw] reasonable caseloads

[Susan Kelly]

Anita -

No lunch most days, not much sleep on any day, and a lot of complaints from my boyfriend / family about bringing work home - that is the basic answer, unfortunately.  And a heavy reliance on my iPad, where my assistant copies the mp3 recordings he makes of all the stuff that isn't truly readable by assistive technology, and copies in the documents that are (at least by Voice Over).  And then a lot of typing on my home laptop (when not in the office) that is not burdened by the obstructive network policies that cause my office computer to routinely freeze up.  It does help that I used to work as a secretary in my pre-lawyering days, and that my boyfriend, as well as my assistant, are both computer geeks who have taught me a great deal about troubleshooting issues on my own.

So I guess the answer is - figure out ahead of time what your limits are, and learn everything that you can within those limits to stay as independent as possible.

Susan

-----Original Message-----
From: Anita Keith-Foust [mailto:anitakeithfoust at gmail.com] 
Sent: Monday, February 09, 2015 10:10 AM
To: Susan Kelly; 'Blind Law Mailing List'
Cc: AnitaKeithFoust at gmail.com
Subject: RE: [blindlaw] reasonable caseloads

Dear Susan:

How do you do it?! 

Those of us preparing for law school need to know what skills, software, and assistance we need to pull off what you are doing.  I know it is exhausting, but I still would like to know how you do it.

Please share.

Thank you.

Anita Keith-Foust
919-430-1978

-----Original Message-----
From: blindlaw [mailto:blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Susan Kelly via blindlaw
Sent: Thursday, January 22, 2015 11:53 AM
To: Blind Law Mailing List
Subject: [blindlaw] reasonable caseloads

I am a public defender, and prior to becoming completely dependent on assistive technology, routinely carried open caseloads of over 60 cases when in the appellate section, 120 when in the trial section, and 90 - 100 once I transferred to the juvenile division.  (These numbers represent cases that were currently open at any given time - the yearly cumulative figure was much higher.)  As an additional complication, the vast majority of my clients at the time were non-English speakers.  (I was too busy working through my cases to realize that my co-workers did not tend to carry quite as high of caseloads, as they had the sense to complain.)

Now that I must rely on JAWS and other adaptive means to handle my cases, which itself is complicated by on-going issues with our computer systems in-office and at court, I cannot work nearly as quickly as in the past.  I find myself working non-stop while at the office, not taking lunch, and dragging recordings home to review for several hours each evening and on the weekends.  My current assignment is in the juvenile division, where I handle all of the appeals for the section, the week-day initials, and trial cases.
I will soon be training as the back-up for the juvenile drug court in addition to these tasks.  Does anyone have any idea what might be considered a reasonable caseload under these circumstances?
_______________________________________________
blindlaw mailing list
blindlaw at nfbnet.org
http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blindlaw_nfbnet.org
To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
blindlaw:
http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/blindlaw_nfbnet.org/anitakeithfoust%40gmai
l.com