Paralegal Job Description

Paralegal job description/duties of a paralegal

A paralegal is not a lawyer. It is someone who assists lawyers in doing their legal work. Paralegal’s main duty includes assisting lawyers with preparing for trials, meetings, hearings, and closing arguments. There job includes a lot of research. They must review information related to cases, write reports for attorneys, look for legal journals and past cases in order to help with current cases. They can not give legal advice and they do not offer legal services as lawyers do they just assist lawyers.

Paralegals can work in many different areas. Most of them work for law firms or corporate legal departments. They can also work for state government agencies but there are fewer jobs in this area. Paralegals can work in criminal law, family law, immigration law, bankruptcy law, personal injury law and real estate law. They can work in any area of law assisting lawyers. The more experience a paralegal has the more duties and responsibilities they are given.

The tasks a paralegal has will depend on the area they are working. For example, a litigation paralegal will manage files, analyze evidence for hearings, and do research. In a community service area they will help the elderly, minorities, and poor people with legal issues. They will do research, prepare documents, file documents, and some of them might represent their clients at a hearing only if the law allows them to do this.

Some requirements of a paralegal include knowledge of computer technology. They must know how to use online databases and programs that the legal world uses. They need to know how to use scanning programs, tax programs, and client databases. They must know how to use the internet and have great computer skills. If you lack any of these skills, you will not be marketable in this field.

The environment for a paralegal to work in is indoors in an office setting. They may need to travel out side the office occasionally. They may need to go to court or to a law library to do research. Paralegals are always under deadlines and must complete their work within these deadlines. There job may be high-stress due to their deadlines and the type of cases they are working with. Finally, they most likely will be required to work overtime. Anytime they are working with an important case overtime will occur.