Plan to attend law school and earn your Juris Doctor (JD) degree from an ABA-accredited university. Earning this degree will help you prepare for the bar exam by teaching the basics of law. Many professional paralegals, after working in the legal profession for some time, find that they have a renewed interest in becoming a lawyer. The transition from paralegal to lawyer is a natural progression, but requires careful planning. Most paralegals find helpful advice in law school programs and the lawyers they currently work with. Every divorce is unique and sometimes circumstances or a lack of funds do not allow you to use the services of a lawyer. However, if you are not familiar with the legal system while trying to file the documents yourself, it can be quite overwhelming. In such cases, paralegals can provide you with the right support by preparing divorce documents for you, helping you complete the right custody and child support paperwork, and investigating and filing documents for you. They can`t give you legal advice or argue your case in court, but if you believe your divorce will be easy and uncontested, and you prefer to divorce without a lawyer, then a paralegal may be a viable choice for you. However, while lawyers may perform any of the above tasks, they have additional professional responsibilities that paralegals are not allowed to assume, including: The paralegal profession is one of the fastest growing careers in the United States.

Although the employment prospects for a lawyer are above average, they are not comparable to the paralegal market. Paralegals gain the legal knowledge and experience to know if a career as a lawyer is a good fit for their skills and personality. In addition, understanding and experimenting with paralegals can facilitate their legal education. However, even experienced paralegals must meet the same training and licensing requirements as all other lawyers to practice law. While paralegals and lawyers are essential aspects of the criminal justice system and legal affairs as a whole, they work in very different jobs. I hope this has helped you see where you can fit in both areas. It can sometimes be confusing to distinguish between the professional responsibilities of paralegals and lawyers, as paralegals perform legal functions on behalf of a supervising lawyer. In addition, the professional responsibilities of a paralegal are very similar to those of a lawyer (this is the main benefit of hiring a paralegal).

The higher salary required of a lawyer is due to his or her extensive training and responsibilities as a chartered administrator of the law. On the other hand, paralegal training is cheaper and can be completed much more quickly. So, if you`re looking for a lucrative career in the legal field and have trouble distinguishing between paralegal and legal studies, read on. This article will give you an overview of the terminology. I hope that by the time you read this, you will have a better idea of the things that distinguish them from each other. MTI College`s AA Online Paralegal Studies program is open to students residing in California. With this comprehensive online program, you can accelerate your training to become a paralegal in California. For more information or to speak directly with our admissions department, call (916) 339-1500 or fill out our contact form today. A representative from MTI College will contact you shortly thereafter.

Lawyers may appear before judges at hearings, select and introduce jury members, or hear witnesses. Paralegals cannot do any of these things. Paralegals do most of their work behind the scenes, preparing documents and researching a case. Supervising lawyers are responsible for the paralegal`s work, which provides some protection in the event of a negative outcome. Lawyers are also allowed to sign legal documents and set fees, unlike paralegals. An important advantage that lawyers have over paralegals is earning potential. Lawyers and paralegals have many overlapping tasks, and while lawyers earn more and have a more prestigious job title, there are certainly potential downsides. However, with a projected growth rate of 12% between 2020 and 2030 (which is above average), the employment prospects of paralegals and legal assistants appear slightly better than those of lawyers, which are expected to be 9% (or as fast as the average) for the same future 10-year period.

The median annual salary for lawyers in 2020 was $126,930, more than double the median salary of $52,920 for paralegals, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.1 This wage gap is large, but it`s only part of the equation. Because they seem similar, it can be easy to confuse paralegal and legal studies. While both are indeed part of the legal field, the truth is that paralegal is a specific field in the legal industry where the study of law is a broad umbrella term that can include a paralegal program. While there are many similar tasks performed by paralegals and lawyers, there are also many big differences between the two career paths. You may become a paralegal faster and need less training, but you may not be able to earn as much as a lawyer – and you may not be able to practice as a lawyer. Alternatively, lawyers can practice law and are well compensated financially for their work. But it takes more years of expensive and challenging legal study to become a lawyer, and the job can be more stressful once you`re one. A paralegal is a person who is qualified by his or her education and/or training and who has intermediate knowledge of the law and judicial procedures to carry out subsidiary legal activities.

Paralegals usually assist lawyers in their case by preparing for meetings, trials and hearings. You may work for a lawyer or be hired by a lawyer and provide certain legal services, but you cannot represent a client in court or provide legal advice. You can investigate and research the details of a case or collect documents, write briefs, write legal reports, and even help lawyers during the process. However, paralegals can also work independently and directly assist self-represented clients by doing work similar to what they would normally do to assist a lawyer in a case. Paralegals often do the work necessary to create legal documents and prepare for cases. Lawyers can do these things too, but they often use the information created by paralegals when working on files or other client work.