How Immigration Lawyers Can Become More Organized

Organization is an essential skill for lawyers as they handle demanding caseloads. For immigration lawyers, being organized can mean the difference between success and failure on life-changing matters.

Here are a few tips you can easily implement, including a few ways that Noodle can help.

Why Do Immigration Lawyers Need to Be Organized?

Like any type of lawyer, immigration lawyers must have strong organizational skills. Lack of organization can lead to:

Serious Repercussions

Imagine you miss an appointment, like a court hearing. You can delay a client’s case. Or let’s say you forget to submit a form because you didn’t have all the necessary documents at your disposal. This can lead to the denial of a case or, as a worst-case scenario, a court may order your client removed. 

While you may be able to rectify some of these mistakes, you might not be able to fix everything and that can have a serious impact on your client’s future.

Added Stress

Lawyers tend to have large caseloads, and in the last few years, immigration lawyers have reportedly faced unprecedented levels of stress, according to LexisNexis. Being disorganized can lead to having to catch up or go back and redo work, which can become a burden. 

Less Productivity

If you have to constantly redo applications or fix past errors, you won’t be able to close out cases as quickly as you’d like. Being less productive also means you may find it difficult to grow your business. 

Distrust Among Clients

To run a law firm, you must win over your clients’ trust. If you can’t keep yourself organized, you risk things falling through the cracks, which can cause your client to not trust you. Since your ability to keep everything in order is a reflection of your professionalism, your clients will notice if you constantly struggle with disorganization. They could potentially choose to find another lawyer to represent them or they might not recommend you to others. 

4 Tips to Keep Yourself Organized

There are big and small steps you can take to become more organized. You can: 

Clear Your Workspaces 

Cluttered workspaces — both your desk and your desktop — can make it difficult to find exactly what you need. It can also lead to distraction. Take time to clear your workspaces so you can stay on top of everything. 

Create a Routine

Create a routine for the day or the week. You might choose to create a to-do list at the end of each workday or look at what appointments you have at the beginning of each week so you don’t miss any important task. You can also set a time to check email in a day (for example, every two hours) or when you should call back clients. Regardless of what routine you create for yourself, you are ensuring that you get to different tasks on a regular basis so nothing creeps up on you.

Prioritize Tasks by Level of Urgency

Not all tasks are urgent. Prioritize what needs to get done first so you’re not missing any important deadlines. 

Turn to Technology

Technology can be your best tool. You can create events on your calendar and set automatic reminders so you don’t miss a deadline or appointment. You can also use labels in your email to automatically categorize messages from different senders. For example, if you work on asylum cases and family-based cases, you can have a label for each of them. Use technology to your advantage to automate tasks and keep yourself organized.

How Noodle Can Keep You Organized as an Immigration Lawyer

Noodle has a suite of tools that can aid immigration lawyers: 

Client Portal

Lawyers typically use third-party websites to host their customer relationship management (CRM) and client case management. This means lawyers have to use different platforms to work on different aspects of a case. Noodle consolidates all these systems into one platform, which you can host on your website. Clients can log on through your website and directly engage with you. Not only does it look professional, it also lets you and your clients remain on the same page.

Document Management

Noodle can request and process immigration forms, such as H1-B petitions. Having one location for your documents cuts down on clutter.

Reminders & Confirmations

Communication is an important part of being successful in this role. Noodle’s AI tool sends reminders and confirmations when there is progress on a case, which means you don’t have to reach out to clients to give them updates. It will also keep you up to date on every case. 

Automatic Invoicing 

Collecting payment is a necessary part of the job. If you don’t collect payments in an organized fashion, it can affect your business. Noodle sends automatic invoices and reminders to clients, making it one less thing you have to worry about.