Tuesday, November 1, 2011

What's a Paralegal Do Exactly?

By Austin M. Thomas


In plenty of politically-themed movies and books where lawyers are the big shots, we almost always see someone trailing behind them or running around a law firm. But somewhere behind them someone is trotting behind them or doing something in the lawyer's office. So what is a paralegal? A paralegal is someone who basically assists a lawyer. It is also this connection to a professional who is practicing law that they are also called legal assistants.

The profession of a paralegal varies greatly from one country to another. In America, they are usually associated with personal assistants and they are not allowed by the government to practice law. Ontario, Canada on the other hand, they can perform some legal work once they have their paralegal certification. They can also perform legal activities within the limitations of the law. For those in the United Kingdom, a paralegal is a non-lawyer who is able to do legal not considering for whom he or she is working for.

Now that we know what a paralegal is; let us tackle of the question of what does paralegal do? Basically, paralegals are the legal assistants of the lawyers. They are the people who work behind the scene. They perform research and paperwork in order to help the lawyer make a good case on a certain trial. Lawyers let paralegals do the research because the paralegals were trained to do research in the same way as a lawyer does. They also have secretarial duties namely fixing the lawyer's schedule and ensuring that the lawyer follows that given schedule.

Paralegals are also the people who will do some interviewing in behalf of the lawyer when there is a need for some more information about the case. In the court, the paralegal is the person who will be submitting the forms and applications to the court and also organizes all the files. The bulk of it all, paralegals are the ones who will do plenty of work in the preparation of a trial.

Do not get into your mind that a paralegal job is like of a secretary because there are some secretarial responsibilities, that is not their sole purpose. A lot of people want to have this job because aside from a good salary, it also brings about a sense of satisfaction among paralegals because they also had a hand in winning the case and deliver the wanted justice to those who have been wronged. Without them, lawyers will have no time to talk to their clients about strategies to win a case.

Many say that behind a successful man is a great woman. In this case though, behind the success of a lawyer is a great paralegal. They play an important role in making the success of a case and also help out lawyers in their job.




About the Author:



No comments:

Post a Comment