Paralegal Essay

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Recommended: Why I want to become a paralegal

Paralegals are professionals who assist or support lawyers with their work (Westwood College). Supporting qualified lawyers includes a variety of tasks. When an attorney’s case goes to court, paralegals prepare motions and pleadings, in addition to organizing and cataloguing relevant trial documents (Westwood College). Paralegals also locate and interview witnesses; conduct investigations; conduct legal research; and summarize depositions, interrogatories and testimony (The National Association of Legal Assistants). In addition, the Business and Professions Code Section 6450(a) states that “Tasks performed by a paralegal include, but are not limited to, case planning, development, and management; legal research; interviewing clients; fact gathering and retrieving information; drafting and analyzing legal documents; collecting, compiling, and utilizing technical information to make an independent decision and recommendation to the supervising attorney; and representing clients before a state or federal administrative agency if that representation is permitted by statute, court rule, or administrative rule or regulation” (Business and Professions Code Section 6450(a)). According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in California, the estimated hourly mean wage for a paralegal is $24.15, and the mean annual wage estimate is $50,220 (Bureau of Labor Statistics). Benefits for paralegals usually include vacation, holiday, sick leave, medical, dental, life insurance, and retirement plans. Many law firms pay bonuses based on seniority or merit or a combination of both (State of California Employment Development Department). The salaries for paralegals who are self-employed depend upon the type of assignments completed and do not ... ... middle of paper ... ...f Labor Statistics). When less work is delegated to paralegals, a firm may downsize and lay off some paralegals or to hire new paralegals until the workload increases (Bureau of Labor Statistics). The fact that interested me the most about the paralegal profession is that paralegals are not limited to working in a law office. There are a number of other career opportunities for paralegals. Some opportunities are in law-related fields, and other opportunities are in non-legal related fields; however, the opportunities are for jobs in which a paralegal education provides useful training. Paralegal skills intertwine with many other professions. In addition, I think that paralegals are underpaid because paralegals have many duties, responsibilities and pressures. Paralegals are attorneys’ right hand person and attorneys rely heavily on paralegals’ many skills.

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