MARASIGAN INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE & TECH.

Legal Medical Office Procedure

Module 3

TIPS IN HANDLING CLIENTS

Greeting Clients/Visitors

All visitors should be greeted promptly and courteously. When visitors walk into your
office, show them that they are welcome.
Be Friendly
Greet the visitor with a cheerful smile and a cordial word. When you say, "Good
morning, may I help you?' look and sound as if you, a representative of the are sincerely glad to
see him.

Be Attentive
When a visitor arrives, stop your other work and give him your undivided attention.
Even though you may be very busy with other tasks and quite pressed for time. The visitor
should receive priority and be made to feel that you have been waiting for him to arrive.

Ask Necessary Questions

Opening lines are very useful in establishing a good feeling and help you to find out
what you need to know in order to serve the caller.
Questions such as the following will provide helpful leads for you:

•May I help you?

 Whom do you wish to see?
 Whom do you represent?
 Do you have an appointment?

HANDLING APPOINTMENTS

Appointments are activities that you schedule in your calendar that do not involve
inviting other people or reserving resources. You can schedule recurring appointments, view
your appointments by day, week, or month, and set reminders for your appointments.
You can specify how the appointments in your calendar look to others by designating
the time of the appointment as busy, free, tentative, or out of office. Also, others can give you
permission to schedule or make changes to appointments in their calendars.
In order to schedule appointments for people within your organization, you must know
their preferences. That is, you must know their choice of days and times of days for meetings
with others. You must also know if they will see visitors without appointments.
The Attorney's and Secretary's Diaries
The attorney keeps a record book into which he enters all his appointments, time and
place of court appearances and other important names. He usually keeps this diary on his desk.
Likewise, the secretary also keeps a record of her important deadlines and commitments.
 Secretaries check their attorney's diary of appointment and write those appointments in his/her
diary. Other secretary prefer to use a tickler file. Any appointment she has made for the
attorney are also entered in his diary.

Calendar and Schedules

It is essential that the appointment records of the attorney and secretary be

coordinated especially in large offices where one handles a great deal of litigation. All dates,
deadlines, meetings, court appearances and the like must be entered in a central office
calendar.
A good tool for keeping the attorney "on track" is the daily schedule. The legal secretary
should prepare a daily schedule each morning of appointments for that day and items that are
coming due within the next week.

Many offices have computers with the capability of performing this function.
Scheduling Appointments Using MS Outlook

How to Create an Appointment

1. On the File menu, point to New, and then click Appointment.
Keyboard shortcut To create an appointment
2. In the Subject box, type a description.
3. In the Location box, type the location.

4. Enter the start and end times.

TIP: You can type specific words and phrases in the Start time and End time boxes
instead of dates. For example you can type Today, Tomorrow, New Year's Day, Two Weeks from
Tomorrow, Week from Yesterday, Three days before New Year's Day, and most holiday names.

5. Select any other options that you want.

6. To make the appointment recur, on the Appointment tab, in the Options group,
click Recurrence.
 7. Click the frequency (Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Yearly) with which the appointment
recurs, and then select options for the frequency.

8. Click OK.
9. On the Appointment tab, in the Actions group, click Save & Close.
TIP: Quickly add a new appointment by using the new Click to Add Appointment feature
in Microsoft Office Outlook 2007. Rest your mouse pointer over any blank area on the calendar
grid, and then click to add an appointment.

How To Change an Appointment

1. Open the appointment that you want to change.
2. Do one of the following:
Change options for an appointment that is not part of a series.
a. Change the options, such as subject, location, and time, that you want to change.
b. On the Appointment tab, in the Actions group, click Save & Close.
Change options for all appointments in a series.
a. Click Open the series, and then change any options, such as subject, location, and
time, that you want to change.
b. To change recurrence options, on the Recurring Appointment tab, in the Options
group, click Recurrence, change the options, such as time, recurrence pattern, or range of
recurrence, and then click OK.
C.On the Recurring Appointment tab, in the Actions group, click Save & Close.
Change options for one appointment that is part of a series.
a. Click Open this occurrence.
b. On the Recurring Appointment tab, change the options, such as subject, location, and
time, that want.
C. On the Recurring Appointment tab, in the Actions group, click Save & Close.
 Make an Appointment Recur

1. Open the appointment that you want to set to recur.

2. On the Appointment tab, in the Options group, click Recurrence.
3. Click the frequency - Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Yearly the appointment to recur, and
then select the options for the frequency.
4. On the Appointment tab, in the Actions group, click Save & Close.

Make an Appointment Private

1. Create or open the appointment that you want to make private. 2. On the
Appointment tab, in the Options group, click Private.
Keyboard shortcut: To mark an item private,

IMPORTANT: You should not rely on the Private feature to prevent other people from
accessing the details of your appointments, contacts, or tasks. To make sure that other people
cannot read the items that you mark as private, do not grant them read permission to your
Calendar, Contacts, or Tasks folders. A person with read permission to access your folders could
use programmatic methods or other e-mail applications to view the details of a private item.
Use the private feature only when you share folders with people whom you trust.

A better way to keep individual appointments private is to create them on a separate

calendar.
Set Up a Clear Reminder

Do one of the following:

For all new appointments that you create:

1. On the Tools menu, click Options.

2. To automatically turn a reminder on or off for new appointments, select or
clear the Default reminder check box.
 3. If you select the check box, enter the amount of time before the appointment
that you want the reminder to appear.

MAKING TRAVEL ARRANGEMENT

The attorney will often be required to travel to other locations, either local or abroad.
Many details have to be taken care of, both before he leaves and while he is away.

Details of Trip
In order to prepare intelligently for the attorney's journey, the secretary must know
when the attorney will leave, where he will be going, how long he will stay in different places,
and the date of his return. All arrangements depend on this information.
The attorney may travel by plane, railroad, ship, bus, or car. For travel by any other
means, advance reservations are advisable, and the earlier they are made, the better.

Air Travel

Air travel is the most popular method of transportation for business trips to destinations
more than 200 miles away. Most business people prefer to fly because flying takes less than any
other method of travel.
 If your boss is a frequent traveler, you may find it convenient to keep an up to date
timetable of the airlines serving your area. Another useful source of flight information is the
Official Airline Guide, which contains flight schedule for all the airlines, is revised periodically
during the year.
Three (3) Ways By Which Travel Can Be Arranged
1. Travel department of the company
2. Travel Agency
3. Arranged it YOURSELF
Traveling by Car

For shorter trips to areas that are difficult to reach by air, your supervisor may prefer to
drive. If your company provides a car for employees travelling on business, you should call
ahead of time to reserve the car.
When a personal car is used for business purposes, you or your employer may have to
complete a travel authorization form or Trip Ticket. This form usually calls for the name of the
driver, the destination, the purpose of the trip, the dates and time of departure and date of
return, and the estimate of the round trip mileage. The travel authorization form must be
submitted so that the driver can receive payment for car expenses.

Foreign Travel
Foreign travel requires careful planning because of differences in time zone, currency
and customs. For this reason, you will probably find the services of a reliable travel agent very
helpful. The travel agent can tell you what special travel documents (such as visas, travel
permits, passports) your supervisor needs and where to obtain them.

Safe Travel Tips

The following travel tips covers a number of considerations that apply equally to
business travelers and vacationers.
A trip to a foreign country can indeed be fun and exciting. However, a fun trip can
sometimes turn sour without proper planning or prior knowledge of the country. Therefore, it is
always advisable for travelers to learn more about a foreign country that they are about to visit
so as to expect the unexpected and take proper precautions before making the trip there. Here
are some useful travel tips that can help make your trip enjoyable and memorable.

1. Make sure that you have a valid Passport and Visa. Carry a copy of passport with you while
you are in the country you are visiting.
2. Review the Entry Requirements of the country.
3. Check seasonal weather conditions of the country.
4. Know about the currency exchange rate.
5. Know the different international dialing codes.
6. Choose a safe and secure hotel.
7. Remember to leave contact information with family and friends so they can get in touch
with you.
Responsibilities in your Supervisor’s Absence
While your supervisor is out of town you will be responsible for keeping the office
running smoothly. You should take special care in performing your regular duties. If something
happen that you cannot handle, check to see if someone else in the company can help you.

Activity # 3
1. Make your own Itinerary for travelling outside the country. (do not copy)
2. What does a secretary do?
3. How to maintain legal company schedules?
4. As a legal assistant, how do you documenting financial information?
5. What does the career path of a secretary look like