Elsewhere on this site you can discover how to become a paralegal and what is a paralegal including the skills you will require and the possible duties you will have as a paralegal as well as a paralegal job description.
This piece takes a look though at paralegal courses and more importantly the criteria for ABA approved paralegal programs.
Before doing that though keep in mind that a similar job to that of paralegal may be described as a legal secretary in other jurisdictions such as the U.K. (See what is a paralegal)
So the terms of legal secretary job description and paralegal job description are interchangeable to a large extent, depending on where you live or job-hunt.
Paralegal jobs
Paralegal jobs will typically have a job description which will require the following tasks to be carried out:
- Legal research
- Filing legal documents and pleadings
- Drafting and checking legal documents
- Dictation of legal drafts
- Dealing with clients to a certain degree
- Handling legal correspondence and making sure that critical dates are not missed for court appearances and filing of pleadings or affidavits
Paralegals work under the supervision of a lawyer and can be found in private and public law practices, government and state offices and practically anywhere you will find a lawyer providing legal services.
Even though a paralegal will have many of the skills and training of an attorney, and in many situations much more experience, paralegals cannot act as lawyers or hold themselves out as attorneys.(See also types of lawyers and careers in law)
So they will have no right of audience in court, cannot give legal advice or swear/witness legal documents.
Paralegal training
