Paralegal
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A paralegal is an administrative person who works under the direct supervision of a lawyer. They are found in all areas where lawyers are — in criminal trials, in real estate, in government, in estate planning. Paralegals and legal document assistants (LDAs) are often mistaken for one another; however, in most jurisdictions, paralegals are not permitted to contract directly with consumers for the preparation of legal documents.
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[edit] Official definitions
Various legal organizations offer official definitions of a paralegal; these definitions typically have slight differences. Definitions offered by major organizations include:
- From the American Bar Association: "A legal assistant or paralegal is a person qualified by education, training or work experience who is employed or retained by a lawyer, law office, corporation, governmental agency or other entity who performs specifically delegated substantive legal work for which a lawyer is responsible." Under this definition, the legal responsibility for a paralegal's work rests directly and solely upon the lawyer.[1]
- From the National Federation of Paralegal Associations (NFPA) [USA]: "A Paralegal is a person, qualified through education, training or work experience to perform substantive legal work that requires knowledge of legal concepts and is customarily, but not exclusively, performed by a lawyer. This person may be retained or employed by a lawyer, law office, governmental agency or other entity or may be authorized by administrative, statutory or court authority to perform this work. Substantive shall mean work requiring recognition, evaluation, organization, analysis, and communication of relevant facts and legal concepts."[2]
- From the National Association of Legal Assistants (NALA) [USA]: "Legal assistants, also known as paralegals, are a distinguishable group of persons who assist attorneys in the delivery of legal services. Through formal education, training and experience, legal assistants have knowledge and expertise regarding the legal system and substantive and procedural law which qualify them to do work of a legal nature under the supervision of an attorney." In 2001, NALA adopted the ABA's definition of a paralegal or legal assistant as an addition to its definition.[3]
- From the American Association for Paralegal Education (AAfPE): "Paralegals perform substantive and procedural legal work as authorized by law, which work, in the absence of the paralegal, would be performed by an attorney. Paralegals have knowledge of the law gained through education, or education and work experience, which qualifies them to perform legal work. Paralegals adhere to recognized ethical standards and rules of professional responsibility."[4]
[edit] Educational background
In the United States, paralegals have taken many different paths to their careers. These paths comprise an array of varying levels of education, different certifications, and on-the-job-training. They work in government, for law firms, for corporations, for real estate firms, and for nonprofit organizations. Where they work and what they do often depends on what mixture of experience, skills, education, and certification they possess.
There is no specific educational requirement in most U.S. states for legal assistants or paralegals. Some paralegals have only on-the-job experience, while some paralegals have completed a two-year course or bachelor's degree in paralegal studies. Others have completed a bachelor's or even a master's degree in another field, and quite a few of these people have also completed a regular or post-baccalaureate paralegal certificate. Many paralegals have completed all of their training before entering the profession, while others have completed their education while working their way up from the mailroom in a law firm. Many paralegals take Continuing Legal Education credits to fulfill the requirements of their firm, state, or association.
U.S. Paralegal or Legal Assistant courses of study have long been available in associate's degree or certificate programs at community colleges and private universities. However, similar programs exist at four-year universities and have expanded over the years. More and more prestigious universities offer bachelor's degrees and post-baccalaureate certificates in the subject.
[edit] Certification
In the United States, there is no such thing as a licensed paralegal; rather, paralegals can be "registered," "certificated," or certified. While certification or registration is voluntary in most states, it prepares a paralegal to enter the profession, in many places it may increase the likelihood of a paralegal's hire or promotion, and serves to identify a person as capable of work that is on par with certain standards. There are two major national organizations that offer designations to paralegals who meet voluntary regulation standards: the National Association of Legal Assistants (NALA) and the National Federation of Paralegal Associations (NFPA). NALA offers its Certified Legal Assistant examination, a comprehensive 2-day examination that awards the paralegal the "CLA" or "Certified Legal Assistant" or "CP" Certified Paralegal" designation. Both the "CLA" and "CP" designations are proprietary trademarks owned by NALA, paralegals who have attained further education and received a paralegal certificate are referred to as "Certificated" unless they have passed the examination and been awarded the "Certified" designation. Additionally, those paralegals who receive the "Certified Paralegal" designation then have the opportunity to earn the "Advanced Certified Paralegal" designation. The NFPA offers the Paralegal Advanced Competency Exam, which is a four-hour exam on a variety of legal topics; those who pass that exam can call themselves PACE-Registered Paralegals and display the "RP" designation.[5]
Graduation from a certificate or degree program does not, technically, certify a paralegal; in most states, passing an exam administered by a recognized entity is the only benchmark. Many states, such as Florida, have started to legislate licensing requirements for paralegals in an effort to maintain quality and to determine who can call themselves paralegals.[citation needed]
Some states have considered the licensure of paralegals. Whether paralegals should be licensed or certified is one of the most important issues for paralegals today.[citation needed]
[edit] Salary
In the United States the median annual salary for a paralegal in the private sector is $45,460, as of May 2006.[6]
Paralegals working for the US federal government average over $53,000 per year while state and local government paralegals earn around $34,000. Larger law firms may pay over $100,000 annually with benefits depending on experience with starting salaries over $50,000. Starting salaries in smaller metropolitan areas, however, are about $24,000 annually.[citation needed]
The paralegal field is a rapidly growing one.[7]
[edit] Economics
At the heart of the paralegal phenomenon is a legal-economics argument. According to the laws of the United States, there are five specific acts which only a licensed attorney can perform:
- Establish the attorney-client relationship
- Give legal advice
- Sign legal papers and pleadings on behalf of a party
- Appear in court on behalf of another (i.e. the client)*
- Set and collect fees for legal services
*Except for a limited number of jurisdictions, including but not limited to Social Security cases, wherein a non-attorney (Paralegal) can appear on behalf of the client.
Outside of those five specific acts reserved for an attorney only, the paralegal can perform any task, including legal research, legal writing, preparation of exhibits, as well as the mundane day-to-day tasks of case management. The key is that attorneys are entirely responsible for the actions of their paralegals, and, by signing documents prepared by a paralegal, attorneys makes them their own.
Law schools and state bar associations, through admissions and licensing, control the number of licensed attorneys and, as economic theory would predict, generally act to restrict that number in order to increase salaries over what a truly free market would produce (and, in the case of law schools, allow an increase in tuition by increasing the financial reward of obtaining a law education.) While the strenuous education and bar exams arguably increase the quality of attorneys at the same time as the cost of employing one, there remain many legal tasks for which a full legal education is unnecessary but some amount of legal training is helpful.
As the cost of litigation has risen, insurance companies and other clients have increasingly refused to pay for an attorney to perform these certain kinds of tasks, and this gap has been filled in many cases by paralegals. Paralegal time is typically billed at only a fraction of what an attorney charges, and thus to the paralegal has fallen those substantive and procedural tasks which are too complex for legal secretaries (whose time is not billed) but for which attorneys can no longer bill. This in turn makes attorneys more efficient by allowing them to concentrate solely on the substantive legal issues of the case, while paralegals have become the "case managers."
The increased use of paralegals nationwide has slowed the rising cost of legal services and serves in some small measure (in combination with contingency fees and insurance) to keep the cost of legal services within the reach of the regular population. However, as John T. Brodrick, Jr. warns in his article "An Emerging Model: Legal Assistant as Colleague" (Chapter 7 of Leveraging with Legal Assistants), "However, our profession makes a serious error if it uses legal assistants only as economic tools."
- Paralegal Nurse Consultants
Some attorneys who practice in fields involving medical care have only a limited knowledge of healthcare and medical concepts and terminology. Therefore, in addition to Legal Nurse Consultants, a certain number of registered nurses have become fully trained as paralegals in the manner described above and assist behind the scenes on these cases, in addition to serving as expert witnesses from time to time. There is an extremely high demand for nurses to begin with, so the demand for nurses with paralegal skills is expected to remain very high in the near future.
[edit] Paralegals and notaries public
A large percentage of paralegals and legal secretaries are also commissioned as notaries public.
[edit] Paralegals outside of the United States
The original concept of paralegals started with the Attorneys Assistants of the United Kingdom, where paralegals may be found today, acting as assistants to fully qualified solicitors. In most countries, a Bachelor's degree is sufficient education to practice law, though not necessarily at the highest levels; in the U.K. further qualification is required to act as a barrister (England); in (Scotland) a Post-graduate Diploma is required to act as a solicitor with further training requirements to become an advocate. Meanwhile, in the U.S. a Bachelor's degree is becoming the standard for paralegals.
In the U.K., with many graduates finding a training contract hard to secure, it is now the norm for individuals who have completed the educational stage of the qualifications necessary to become a solicitor to seek employment as a paralegal in order to gain the experience of working in a legal firm necessary to secure the training contract. Initially this was simply a way of earning money in a relevant working environment, however it is now almost necessary for a training contract applicant to demonstrate having had such employment, and many firms will only recruit from their own pool of paralegals. This unofficial extension to the requirements necessary to become a qualified solicitor is a source of continued frustration amongst law graduates, and fuels the calls for the Law Society to replace the current qualification scheme with something fairer, faster, and at lower cost to the underpaid graduate. Further, in England & Wales anyone may call him or herself a paralegal without any qualification whatsoever. The National Association of Licensed Paralegals is hoping this will change but for the moment 'paralegal' is not a protected title. Paralegals in England and Wales may offer legal advice, as may any person, as there is no offence such as the unauthorized practice of law. Of course a client 'wronged' by such a paralegal may have remedy in a civil court for damages. Such paralegals have rights of audience in the small claims court. The NALP is planning to petition the Department of Constitutional Affairs to obtain rights of audience in the magistrates court, crown court and high court and have met with enthusiasm by the government in a bid to widen access to justice. Paralegals, and indeed any lay member of the public, can act as a Police Station Representative and give advice to clients under caution at the police station. If they wish to be paid by the government (LSC) they must become accredited but otherwise their are no laws or restrictions to stop this.
In Scotland, the Scottish Paralegals Association website has been recognised by the Law Society of Scotland as the independent professional body for paralegals in Scotland. In March 2006 the two bodies set up a joint working group on standards and regulation of the paralegal profession.
The Province of Ontario, Canada, recently became the first jurisdiction in North America to provide for the licensing of independent paralegals. This task will be the responsibility of the Law Society of Upper Canada (founded in 1797), which already regulates Ontario's 40,000 or so lawyers. As of May 1, 2007, the Law Society will determine what types of services paralegals can offer without the supervision of a lawyer. The Society will also be responsible for disciplining paralegals who do not conform to rules of professional conduct.
[edit] Paralegals in television and literature
Unlike nurses and physician assistants, paralegals have not caught the popular imagination and rarely are seen or mentioned in fictional or non-fiction legal television programs, or in legal fiction in print. There are however exceptions.
The most famous is probably Erin Brockovich, a real legal clerk whose participation in a toxic tort case became a major motion picture.
Another notable exception is the character Della Street, from the Perry Mason novel, television and movie series. Although Mason identifies Della as "my confidential secretary", the projects he assigns her are entirely consistent with the law office work performed by experienced paralegals.
Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law, an esoteric cartoon comedy, features a paralegal prominently in the form of Avenger, who is usually seen managing files, preparing and presenting documents to the attorneys, and drafting letters to clients. Avenger will usually accompany the charismatic, yet often under-prepared, attorney into court, and whisper case information and advice into his ear. Despite knowing no human language, he is far and away the most competent employee of Sebben & Sebben.
The most current example is likely contained in Showtime's The Riches in which Doug Rich, a con-artist played by Eddie Izzard, impersonates a lawyer at a cutthroat real estate development company. Rich's apparent lack of legal knowledge is often compensated by Aubrey McDonald, a highly-skilled paralegal who manages to help guide the under-educated anti-hero through more than a few sticky situations.
[edit] References
- ^ ABA Standing Committee on Legal Assistants Home Page
- ^ NFPA qweb site
- ^ NALA web site
- ^ AAfPE web site
- ^ Miller, Roger LeRoy and Urisko, Mary Meinzinger, West's Paralegal Today, pp. 2, 8-9 (4th ed. 2008). ISBN 1-4180-5032-6.
- ^ Occupational Employment and Wages, May 2006: Jon classification 23-2011, Paralegals and Legal Assistants, found at Bureau of Labor Statistics, United States Department of Labor government web site. Accessed April 1, 2008.
- ^ Adam Kramer, "Paralegal field found one of the most radidly growing," The Business Review (Albany), April 13, 2003, found atBizjournals web site. Accessed April 1, 2008.
- Current ABA Definition of Legal Assistant/Paralegal
- The Paralegal Profession
- Paralegal and Legal Assistants
- What is a paralegal? — from the National Association of Legal Assistants
- Florida's registered paralegal program
- Reasons Why You Should Be A Paralegal
