Personal Injury Legal Assistant - Pre-Litigation

Location:
Baltimore, MD (onsite, 14 West Madison Street, Baltimore, MD 21201)

Job Type:

Full-time, hourly, non-exempt. Monday through Friday, the office is open from 8:00 am-5:30 pm. Shift is 8 hours, on-site.

Description:
At WGK Personal Injury Lawyers, our Legal Assistants own their files. You are not support staff waiting for an assignment. You carry a caseload of active pre-litigation matters; you are the voice clients hear when they call, and you are the person who makes sure nothing sits still.

The core of this job is the third-party liability claim. You open the claim with the at-fault driver's insurance carrier, confirm coverage and policy limits, work the adjuster, actively monitor your client's medical treatment through to completion, gather lost wage documentation, ensure all records and bills are received, and get the demand package built and transmitted. Alongside that, you run your client's own first-party benefits (PIP/MedPay), and on the cases where the at-fault driver does not carry enough coverage, you help identify and open the uninsured or underinsured motorist claim.

This is a high-volume, fast-moving practice. On any given day, you should know which of your files needs attention and why, without anyone having to ask you.

We also want to be direct about something most firms leave out of the posting. We run Filevine and Lead Docket, and we are actively deploying AI tools and other resources across the firm for record retrieval and demand preparation. The routine document chasing that used to eat a legal assistant's day is shrinking here, and the judgment work is growing. You will be expected to learn new systems quickly, catch what the automation misses, help us improve how the systems work, and tell us plainly when something is broken. If that sounds like a headache, this is not the right firm for you. If it sounds like the good part, keep reading.

We are looking for an independent problem solver. Someone who identifies what needs to happen and does it, rather than waiting to be told. Someone who is direct and respectful with colleagues, takes feedback and actually applies it, and treats a hurt client with patience on the fifth phone call the same as the first.

WGK has been representing injured Marylanders from Baltimore since 1977. We are a growing firm; our team is stable, and the person who fills this role has room to move up.

$27 - $34 hourly

• Third-party liability claims (the core of the role).** Open and drive the claim against the at-fault party's insurance carrier. Confirm coverage, obtain the declarations page and policy limits, secure the claim number and assigned adjuster, submit the letter of representation, and stay on the carrier until the claim moves. You are the point of contact with the other side's adjuster.

• Own your caseload. Manage a portfolio of active pre-litigation files from signup through demand. Know the status, the deadlines, and the next action on every one. Escalate problems early, not after they become emergencies.

• Client communication. Serve as the primary point of contact for your clients. Provide proactive status updates on a set cadence, answer questions in plain English, and support people through a process most of them have never been through before.

• First-party benefits. Open and drive PIP, MedPay, and lost wage claims with the client's own carrier, running in parallel with the liability claim from day one. Gather applications, wage and salary verifications, disability slips, and declarations pages, submit to carriers, track claim numbers and adjusters, and follow up until benefits are issued.

• Uninsured and underinsured motorist claims. Recognize early when the at-fault driver's coverage will not cover your client's damages, flag it to the attorney, and support opening and documenting the UM or UIM claim with the client's own carrier.

• Medical treatment and records oversight. Monitor client treatment, identify gaps and unfinished care before they become case problems, request and review medical records and bills, and verify that what comes back is complete and accurate before it goes into a demand.

• Demand preparation. Assemble and quality-check settlement demand packages, proofread for accuracy, confirm every bill, record, and wage document is accounted for, and transmit with a response deadline.

• Case file integrity. Maintain complete, current, organized electronic files in Filevine and Lead Docket. Documentation is not an afterthought here. If it is not in the system, it did not happen.

• Spot the issues. Flag adverse facts, treatment gaps, coverage shortfalls, and liability concerns to the attorney as soon as you see them. Maryland is a contributory negligence state, and small facts carry outsized consequences.

• Improve the system. Use our technology well, learn new tools as we roll them out, and tell us when a workflow is not working. We want the person doing the job to have a say in how the job gets done.

• 2+ years managing personal injury cases on the plaintiff side, carrying your own caseload

• Hands-on experience running third-party liability claims with adverse insurance carriers, including confirming coverage and limits, working with adjusters, and preparing demand packages

• Experience opening and managing first-party PIP, MedPay, and lost wage claims

• Prior legal assistant or case manager experience

• Proficiency with a legal case management platform (Filevine, Litify, SmartAdvocate, Needles, CASEpeer, Clio, or similar)

• Strong written communication. You will write to clients and insurance adjusters every day

• Strong Microsoft Office skills

• Able to work onsite in Baltimore City, Monday through Friday; office is open from 8:00 am-5:30 pm. Shift is 8 hours, onsite.

Pays more (compensation differentials, see below)

• Bilingual in English and Spanish, at a level where you could handle a client call unassisted

• Workers' compensation experience, including MD Workers' Compensation Commission filings, average weekly wage, and permanency

Who does well here

• Independent problem solvers who move without being asked

• Self-starters who own outcomes, not just tasks

• People who are genuinely good with technology and curious about new tools

• People who adapt when a process changes, and who help make the new process work

• People who take direction and feedback well, apply it, and speak up respectfully when they disagree

• People who are consistently respectful to every person in the building

COMPENSATION

• $27 to $34 hourly, based on experience, plus differentials.

• Base rate is $27 to $31 per hour depending on personal injury experience. On top of base:
  
  +$2.00 per hour for verified Spanish fluency (verified through a live conversation during our hiring process)
  +$1.50 per hour for verified workers' compensation experience
  

WGK Personal Injury Lawyers is a Baltimore personal injury firm founded in 1977 by William Kolodner and now led by his daughter Jill Kolodner and grandson Hunter Duke, keeping WGK a family-run, multi-generational firm.

Our mission is to guide injured Marylanders through the legal process so they can focus on recovering from their injuries. We handle auto accidents and auto-adjacent matters (pedestrian, bicycle, motorcycle, truck, and scooter), premises liability, dog bite, workers' compensation, and wrongful death cases across Maryland.

Our team is built around six things we actually hold each other to: Detail, Resolve, Ingenuity, Voice, Efficiency, and Neighborhood. We are a Baltimore firm serving Baltimore neighbors, and we are growing to keep pace with the clients we serve.