What is a paralegal?

Simply put a Paralegal is a lawyer's assistant who has been educated in law and trained to carry out a variety of legal assignments and legal procedures.

What does a paralegal do? At the basic level a lawyer may employ a Paralegal or legal assistant to perform basic legal tasks such as case research, witness statement taking, filing documents at court in advance of a court case.

At a more responsible level a Paralegal can be asked to analyse case papers/evidence, perform document reviews, draft motions and subpoenas. In the UK Paralegals can be used to actually represent the solicitor?s client in simple civil court cases. These would be cases held in the lower courts e.g. before a District Judge in a County Court or before a Master at the High Court   i.e. The Royal Courts of Justice, London.

Like lawyers Paralegals can specialize and become of particular value to lawyers specializing in the same field.

Whilst Paralegals have traditionally dealt more with procedural law than with substantive law, more and more lawyers are using them in substantive legal work.

It should be noted that many Paralegals can also be found working in legal departments of non law organisations in both the private  and public sectors, e.g. banks, NHS hospitals.