What do paralegals do is a question that a person may ask when considering a career in the legal profession.
Paralegals are very important members of a legal team.
Not only do they make a lawyer’s work easier by easing some of his workload, the presence of paralegals in a legal team will translate into lower client fees. How does this happen?
The billing rate for paralegals is lower than that for associates or partners.
What Do Paralegals Do – Why Are They Important
If partners performed some of the tasks that could be assigned to paralegals such as carrying out research, clients would be billed at higher rates resulting to higher fees.
A paralegal’s role is not to reduce costs though, lower billing is just a handy by-product.
They perform all the roles that would otherwise be performed by lawyers.
In fact, a well trained paralegal can carry out all the duties and responsibilities of a lawyer except what would be considered the actual practice of law.
This means that a paralegal cannot represent a client in a court of law, cannot give legal advice, cannot set legal fees and cannot sign legal documents as an individual’s representative.
What Do Paralegals Do – The Difference Between A Paralegal and A Lawyer
Another difference between paralegals and lawyers is that paralegal training is not as rigorous or as long as training for lawyers.
Paralegals can work with as little as two years training in a paralegal school. In fact, some paralegals get by with just on-the-job training.
Paralegal duties and responsibilities will vary depending on the work situation and specialization.
However, there are some general duties a paralegal will perform.
These duties include carrying out research on law, cases and procedures, interview clients and witnesses, keep clients informed on their cases, correspond with clients and other lawyers about the cases, maintain client files, draft documents, summarize information and maintain the law library.
On top of the general duties, a paralegal’s job description will include other duties which are dependent on their area.
The different areas include family law, real estate, foreclosures, immigration, litigation, business or corporate law and others.
A paralegal in litigation for instance will be required to prepare subpoenas, serve the subpoenas, prepare court exhibits, get the jury list and collect information on the jurors, collect information on adverse witnesses, attend trial and take notes on developments and reactions, draft settlement documents for lawyer’s approval, attend settlement conferences and prepare a notice of appeal.
On the other hand, a paralegal in business or corporate will be required to draft minutes or board resolutions, prepare and file necessary documentation for the formation of a company such as articles of incorporation.
Hopefully this helps answer the quesiton: What do paralegals do?