Paralegal work mostly in law firms as handlers of legal documents and lgegal case files for attorneys. Their work could include everything a lawyer does except standing in a law court for a client.



A professional paralegal should be able carry out his or her duties whout the supervision of a lawyer. NGOs, private commercial companies and Governent offices now compete in the hiring of paralegals to handle their legal departments, where they take charge of legal issues, the drawing up of contracts for the company, researching and interpreting legal imports of steps to be taken by the organization and overseeing the legal aspects of the company's pension plans etc.

You are only considered a qualified paralegal if you have obtained your degree from an American Bar Association approved paralegal training institution, school or university. This lawyers association supplies to paralegal institutions the curriculum for the training of paralegals in the United States. The American bar association is the lawyer's body that designs and supplies the paralegal training curriculum to the paralegal training institutions.

You may not know it, but it is true that during the era when paralegals were known as lawyer's clerks anyone could get that job becuase there was no basic qualification for it.

But today you have to be eminently qualified as a paralegal to get a paralegal job. Which is why the standard or entry level requirement for training as a paralegal is a bachelor degree; since the scope of paralegal duties has risen to higher heights in all endeavors of life. These postions are held by paralegals who were trained and qualified eminently in the specific laws governing those aspects of human endeavor.

Yes, it is only proper that as a paralegal who desires to practice in a particular paralegal field you should be trained to have a proper knowledge of the laws governing that area of human endeavor.

Your overall knowledge must correspond with the particular paralegal field you intend to work in. If you are a carry over paralegal from the olden days who wishes to upgrade, all you have to do is first obtain a life time experience degree and use it as the entry level qualification to get further training to improve your position, or get specialization to work in a particular paralegal field of your choice. Only the parealegals who are trained in an accredited parealegal institution are given certification by the National Association of Paralegals. In other words you are not qualified to sit for the National Association of Paralegals certification exam.

It is a mark of proficiency for a paralegal to be able to draft all legal documents. A competent paralegal will not find it difficult to draft a legal document of any type. I remember years back when as a lawyer's clerk I carried out legal researches by reading loads of hardcover law books in the library; today all legal systematic investigation to establish facts can be done online faster. It must be clear to you that you cannot function successfully as a paralegal without adequate skills in both written and spoken English.

You can obtain paralegal training and the equivalent qualifying degree from online and offline paralegal schools and universites, but I have told you the foregoing without the slightest intention of urging you to enroll in just about any paralegal school you find. Online and offline universities and paralegal schools teach paralegal courses and also set qualifying exams for the award of paralegal degrees.

Yet, all I have said so far do not in any way imply that you should join any institution claiming to offer courses for paralegal training. Please make sure that your choice is an accredited paralegal training body approved by the American Bar Association.