Decided between a retainer and a paralegal for my eviction case

I had to pick between paying a $2,500 retainer for a lawyer or hiring a paralegal for half that to handle my tenant dispute in Cicero. Went with the paralegal since the paperwork was pretty standard and I watched her draft a response to the landlord's notice. It got dismissed last week, but has anyone else used a paralegal for something like this and later wished they'd gone full attorney?

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mason_reed471mo ago

Did the paralegal handle the court filing and all the deadlines too? Man, I did the exact same thing last year for a lease dispute in Pilsen and honestly it worked out better than I expected. The paralegal knew the local court clerks and the exact format they wanted, so nothing got bounced back for stupid technical reasons. Saved me like $1,200 and the landlord's lawyer ended up just dropping the case after we filed a solid motion to dismiss. Yeah, I was sweating it a bit when they mentioned doing a deposition, but that never even happened. Would do it again in a heartbeat for standard stuff like this.

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rileyprice1mo ago

Man, that's exactly what I'm talking about! It's such a relief when the paperwork side just gets handled without a million back-and-forths. Totally feel you on the anxiety before the deposition talk, but sounds like you played it smart and it paid off.

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