Paralegal

Paralegals, also known as legal assistants, work alongside certified legal professionals. While lawyers ultimately are responsible for all legal work performed by their practice, they often delegate many of the legal tasks to paralegals, which are growing in scope and range every day, sometimes even taking the same tasks as the lawyers themselves. That being said, legal assistants are expressly prohibited from performing duties considered to be the practice of law: setting legal fees, giving legal advice, and actually presenting the cases in a courtroom. A paralegal's tasks and duties are many and varied, the more important of which is to support and assist lawyers in preparing for closings, hearings, trials, and corporate meetings. Additional responsibilities include investigating facts of cases to ensure that all relevant information is weighed and considered, identifying the appropriate laws, judicial decisions, legal articles, and other materials that may be relevant to cases being tried. Once the information is analyzed and organized, paralegals may then create and prepare written drafts of reports that attorneys will use to determine how to proceed and how their cases should be handled. Paralegals may also help in the preparation of legal arguments, draft pleadings and motions filed with the court. They may obtain affidavits, and also assist lawyers during trials. In addition to the preparatory work often assigned to them, paralegals also help carry out a number of other functions, such as drafting contracts, mortgages, separation agreements, preparing tax returns, establishing trust funds, and planning estates.