Paralegals are persons who give assistance to lawyers in the performance of legal functions. Such profession is practiced in the United States, Canada, and other countries. The job description of a paralegal varies from country to country. In the United States, a paralegal cannot give direct legal services while in some countries like Canada a paralegal performs the same duties as those of a true lawyer. License in paralegal practice gives a person the permit to do legal work in public and in lower courts as well as administrative bodies in maintaining corporate records articles.
A paralegal who does not comply with the limitations of his duties will be charged with unauthorized law practice. And just like lawyers, they are bound by jurisdiction, which means they can perform duties only in the turf where they are permitted to function.
Distinctions from a Lawyer
Paralegals are different from lawyers in respect to setting fees and giving legal advice as well as representing clients in court and signing legal documents. A paralegal cannot perform the aforementioned duties and only lawyers have the authority to carry them out. The work of a paralegal is limited to writing legal documents, doing research and other documentation jobs on behalf of the lawyers he is giving assistance to.
Moreover, a paralegal and a lawyer differ in the functions that follows:
- Paralegals are confined to certain functions where they are delegated and help make lawyers’ work lighter. On the other hand lawyers’ duties have wider coverage that requires specialized education and trainings.
- A lawyer’s main work is to study, analyze and draw strategies from cases while a paralegal picks organizes the details emanating from the results of the lawyer’s inputs.
Distinctions from Notary Public
Generally, paralegals can also act as notaries public particularly in the United States while at the same time performing duties of a legal secretary. However in other countries, notaries public function as a separate group and may not necessarily qualify as paralegals. In many respects, a paralegal’s functions have broader scope from a notary public whose job is mainly to certify under oath the declarations of clients in document form. Notaries public are usually solicitors whereas lawyers and paralegals do not have to advertise their practice.
The federal government regulates the paralegal profession. Hence rules governing the practice of a paralegal differ from one state to another. Generally however, paralegals cannot perform independently as their work is anchored on the evaluation and strategies drawn by the attorneys from individual cases and legal resolved question smart as required. Paralegals work with lawyers in handling criminal cases as well as civil cases covering real estate, estate planning and the like. It must be noted here however that paralegals in the United States are not the same as the legal document assistants for the latter only takes care of legal documents while the former is involved more directly with the lawyer with whom he works. In the U.S., paralegals are divided into two categories – public and private groups.
Public Sector Paralegal Category
One friend said paralegals under the public sector category are tasked to give assistance to people belonging to the unemployed, low income and senior groups. Lawyers delegate to paralegals the work of obtaining and collating evidence and preparing documents to be presented in hearings however paralegals can’t sign anything. Sometimes a paralegal can also appear in hearings of administrative cases as authorized by the attorney he works for. He also sifts or classifies the information and other facts related to a case before endorsing them to the lawyer.
Private Sector Paralegal Category
As for the private sector, paralegals usually act in their capacity as helping arm of a lawyer for corporate cases. They assist corporate lawyers in taking care of contracts, dealing with shareholders and to interact with employees in behalf of the employers and keep sometimes prepared motions although they cannot give advice. During corporate meetings, paralegals act as just secretaries and are expected to note down the minutes and record them chronologically in the company’s journal. They may also be commissioned to come up reports on finance on annual basis just like an attorney work. There are around seventy percent paralegals employed in private firms, which indeed make sense.
Work Schedules
Paralegal period of work in the office depends on the position of a paralegal relative to the hierarchy set up of a corporation. The standard work schedule of 40 hours in one week work period is followed by many private entities. The terms of employment also vary as some paralegals work only at temporary or limited capacity.
In public sector category, a paralegal’s work hours is strictly governed by the government agency’s policies as based on federal laws. In private sector, there should be no problem with working overtime as it is often approved and honored by legal companies or private corporations, because such extra hours rendered are often approved by the HR. Working overtime is often done when there are lots of paper work to do especially when the schedule for litigations are nearing. Most of the time a paralegal is holed up in legal offices, libraries and other venues where he can do research and gather facts and evidence for certain cases in computers internet. A paralegal may also work from home even beyond office hours with the use of computers where database of the cases he is handling are filed and organized.
Qualifications and Salary Grade
A paralegal must have at least finished college with a two-year college degree in associate studies and four years for a bachelor degree. A paralegal certificate is all right as long as the tasks do not encompass more complicated aspects, which require the paralegal higher education. Big companies usually ask that paralegals applying for positions must have worked for five years in other agencies.
A good profession, typically, a paralegal earns as much as 100 thousand dollars per annum contingent on the firm he gets affiliated with. In usual cases, a paralegal that works in small firms receives lower salaries although the amount of work he performs is equivalent or even more than that of a paralegal working in a bigger corporation. Those handling personal claims get higher pay. Paralegals are also categorized according to their areas of specialization and salary grades are based on such specialization. Refer to this article to learn more about paralegal salary levels.
It is a fact that attorneys are the ones who directly handle cases, defend the clients and act as representatives in any kind of case. However they cannot function fully without the aid of paralegals. A paralegal is an extended arm of a lawyer because he is responsible in preparing every aspect related to a case. As a whole, paralegals are the alter ego of attorneys and they perform most of the tasks of the latter except that they cannot appear in court as legal counsel.