Anyone a Paralegal?

I was wondering if anyone out there is a paralegal or if maybe you know one. I am looking into going back to school to possibly pursue a career in this area. Since I already have my bachelor's degree I believe I can obtain a 'certificate' to do this.

I am really looking for advice or any experiences anyone has had in this field. I would greatly appreciate anyone's input.

I know there are a lot of great people on this site with all kinds of experiences in all sorts of arenas.

Thanks ahead of time!
:)

Interestingly enough, I never wanted to be a paralegal - I took a job as a legal secretary and my boss paid for me to take the accelerated certificate class, which was pretty cool of him. What would you like to know? It's not a job for the weak of stomach! LOL :D

Wow! That was nice!

Well I guess I am just trying to get a better idea of the typical 'day in the life of.' I realize it's very relative. If my assumptions are correct, most paralegals often specialize in one aspect of the law?

I guess the view has always been that paralegals do all the work but don't get the pay (in comparison with an attorney anyway).

My question is quite simply....do you feel this is a fair statement? Do you enjoy what you do?

Most of the paralegals I associate with don't specialize - we live in a smaller city so most attorneys cover more than one type of law. By and large we handle whatever the attorney deals with the most. Yes, we do the work without the pay but the legal secretary does the same thing too - attorneys get a lot of credit while others do all the leg work, pretty much.

Paralegals can do a myriad of things. Law research, case investigation (with attorney direction, of course), we prepare legal documents, prepare bankruptcies, handle certain meetings for the attorney if he is unavailable (Like I now do most of our bankrutpcy meetings, pre-new legislation, of course. . .nobody even quite understands the new legislation at the moment anyway. . .). I have to catalog evidence, create crime timelines, occasionally scope out a crime scene - the work varies, it's rarely boring, there's always something new and since my boss was appointed Judge last summer and I was upgraded to Court Administrator, it's REALLY never boring. . .there's ALWAYS something to do.

For the most part, the certificate class was basically what I'd already learned on the job - the basic bones of putting legal documents together, what is and is not legal in regards to Serving someone, Wills, Divorces, Bankruptcy, Custody, Criminal paperwork, it's all very different and it's necessary to know how it's all put together. Filing is also very specific - every attorney has his own thing going on when it comes to filing and tabbing (something you do with legal documents), so they give you the run down on that too. Things like legal protocols, court room etiquette, the basics - the twist is they throw in the Century Codes (as they're called in this state, every state has their own name for your State mandated laws.). You learn the basics of the laws of your state and even some of the oridinances of your town (not always though, I think I only ended up with that because the teacher knew I was being bumped up the ladder to Court Adm.).

Your average paralegal in a large city can make anywhere from 17.00 to 25.00 an hour. My ym's sister is a para in FL, she makes about 26.50 an hour. Me? I live in a podunk city in the midwest, the going rate here is about 15.00 an hour and I don't even make that - my boss is cheap, but he makes up for it in other perks, like buying us a totally gutted building and letting US design the interior. . .we're having fun with THAT, as you can probably imagine.

There's a really good book you should look into, The Career Legal Secretary. THe National Assocation of Legal Secretaries puts it out. That'll give you a good idea of the basics of the legal assistant type of world - the documents required, protocols, all that. Moving up to paralegal gives you more freedoms but more responsiblity. We are allowed to go to court as an assistant to the attorney - at least here anyway - and we can compile questions for use in trial. (But I know secretaries who do the same thing as well, it depends upon how receptive your attorney is.)

Ultimately, the big divider with this type of jobs is in the big city. The bigger the city, the more defined the jobs become along with their responsibilities. In smaller metro or rural areas, a lot of times the two jobs tend to blur together, the paralegal does a lot of secretarial and sometimes the secretary ends up doing a lot of paralegal she wouldn't even be allowed to breath on in a huge firm in the city.

I enjoy my job - most of the time. It would help if we didn't have this psychotic B I T C H who runs the Police Department constantly dogging our office. She's a royal pain in the rear. . .

Thank you for your reply! I really appreciate the information. It definitely gave me some additional things to think about in making my decision. A lot of it sounds like things I would be interested in doing. I have been involved with the court system on several levels in my current and previous career paths and it can be quite interesting (and aggravating) and times. I think you have to find an area that you enjoy and go with it. There are definitely processes I DON'T enjoy dealing with, but some that I do.

I know that my mind works in an "investigative" type way. I love putting pieces of the puzzle together, figuring things out. I am very analytical in nature. All of the things I have read, and your description as well, lead me to believe that this may be something I would be interested in.

I also know that my current employer will pay for my tuition completely as these would technically still be considered 'undergrad' classes. That's a whole different issue I won't go into....but anyway.... I really appreciate your help!

Thanks!