What Does a Paralegal Do

As the name suggests, a paralegal has got to do with the field of law. Not being the mainstream legal line or lawsuits, a paralegal assists lawyers and does things like interacting with the client for the first time when they come to their office and interview them for the basic facts of the case, case preparation, legal research, courtroom assistance, draft legal documents, make documents according to the needs and format prescribed by the courts, etc. In short, you can also call a paralegal as a litigation support. A paralegal, thus, is a non-lawyer who assists lawyers in their day-to-day work as well as in court cases. Following are the two definitions which will precisely give you an overview of who is a paralegal and what does a paralegal do.

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.
- American Bar Association

A person who is educated and trained to perform legal tasks but who is not a qualified solicitor or barrister.
- National Association of Licensed Paralegals, United Kingdom

Paralegals or legal assistants, are there in every country but have different recognitions from the respective governments and thus different paralegal salary range too. Assisting lawyers can be one of the identifications for paralegals or they can have an independent status as license holders just like lawyers, who can offer legal services only in specific lower courts and administrative tribunals. However non authorized paralegals cannot accept or present cases in any court or give legal advice and set fees. If you looking at being a paralegal or legal assistant, this piece of information will guide you better in finding how to become a paralegal in different places in the world. So this answers what is a paralegal and let's see further in detail in the following paragraphs, as to what does a paralegal do.

What is a Paralegal and What Do They Do?

Law being a very vast and complex field of profession, with all the details to be kept in mind while performing the duties of the same, a paralegal is very helpful and essential for a lawyer to have as he does things like the following:

• Paralegal duties include interacting with the clients and interviewing them for the general basic requirements of a case, viz., facts of a case and interview the witnesses as well for their version of the story. Although this is not a very big deal which requires different set of skills, effective communication skills is one aspect which is very essential for the legal procedure and takes up a considerable amount of time from the lawyer's schedule.
• Paralegals do the research work for every case with references provided by the lawyers under whom they work. Research also demands a huge chunk of time which involves analyzing and organizing relevant material, gathering information, noting the key judgments, etc.
• Prepares documents for cases as well as for filing tax returns, drafting standard letters, for legal correspondence, letters for trust purposes, legal separation, contracts, agreements, etc.
• Paralegals, just like secretaries, who also keep minute details of hearings, meetings, agendas, important deadlines, appointments, keep a track of the working hours spent on a case, etc. and makes the lawyer under whom he is working, efficient.
• Preparing for the administrative formalities, making or procuring affidavits, etc. also come under paralegal job description.
• In the court, what does a paralegal do is, help the lawyer with finding and keeping in place where the documents have been arranged by him, filling up forms or petitions and thus rendering ample time to his boss for working towards the trial.
• Prepares written reports, attends court and administrative hearings and trials with the lawyer. Though most of the things that paralegals do may seem clerical in nature, they are of utmost importance in the whole legal arena.

A legal assistant salary depends not only upon the size and strength of the firm he is with but also the amount of work he is assigned among the ones mentioned above. Hope this article helped you in knowing what does a paralegal do. Note that 'lawyers' in this article refers to attorneys in case of the United States, barrister, solicitor, legal executive in case of the United Kingdom and an advocate, solicitor in case of India. So this is what a paralegal does and though it sounds not so interesting, variety can be seen in the monotony of what a paralegal does by the different and various cases he assists in and the study of interesting tricks of the trade. You never know when you can turn into a Sherlock Holmes!