Legal Administrative Assistant - Intermediate 00000580

Reporting to the Senior Appeals Assistant, the temporary Appeals Assistant (AA) role is the main point of contact on the day of the appeal hearing. The AA is required to provide a wide range of front-line assistance to external parties to the appeal, as well as support and guidance to internal stakeholders such as Appeals Officers, Hearing Chairs, Vice Chairs and Commissioners, in matters relating to the AA role. Before the hearing, the AA is solely response for pre-hearing administration. During the hearing, the AA oversees the hearing recording, manages the parties assists the panel and the parties with additional appeal-related documents, and is expected to take the lead of parties become distressed. After the hearing, the AA is responsible for updating the appeal file, and once the decision is written, the AA is required to format, proofread and send the appeal decision for publication and distribution.

Key Responsibilities:

1. Providing efficient and accurate support to Appeals Officers
- Prepares and disperses Appeals Officers' (AOs) correspondence to participating parties
- Creates the Document Index for the Appeal Documents Package (ADP)
- Informed the assigned Appeals Officer of any new submissions or circumstances occurring at the hearing (e.g. last-minute submissions provided, requests for travel, changes of address, provisions of a wage loss form to the parties, etc.), following up where an adjournment occurs
2. Manages hearing communications and situational irregularities for scheduled hearings
- Notifies the panel of any prehearing anomalies that might impact the success of the hearing
- Coordinates set up and sharing of teleconference/video conference information with the parties and the panels
- Instruct parties in how to participate in all formats of hearings - in person, teleconference, video
- Attends, records hearings, troubleshoots and resolves any process or technical problems
- Responds to party inquiries and concerns prior to commencement of the hearing
- Supports clients, including when distress, emergency or crisis situations arise

3. Ensures correct statuses are maintained
- Enter statuses on ACES for work completed on hearing chair decisions, ADPs, and AO correspondence
- Ensures ACES status benchmarks are maintained to reflect timelines for assigned work from Hearing Chairs and AOs
- Confirms the status of an appeal with the Hearing Chair upon completion of a hearing to meet the AC decision timelines
- Resolves any errors or omissions of stats with IT Coordinator to ensure accurate reporting
4. Audits and prepares Hearing Chair decisions for distribution
- Formats and proofs policy and legislation in the draft decision document
- Provides plain language and other editing feedback to the Hearing Chair
- Ensures decisions documents re in accordance with approved Appeals Commission style guide and decision format protocol
- Processes errors flagged in an issues decision
- Communicates with Hearing Chairs regarding any suggested changes and/or apparent errors
- Ensures the final decision document is publication ready for uploading on CanLII for public access