is paralegal and legal assistant the same? if not, how are they different?
Asked by Dcs

Best Answer:
Paralegal and legal assistants are the same thing. NALA's definition of a paralegal/legal assistant is Legal assistants (also known as paralegals) are a distinguishable group of persons who assist attorneys in the delivery of legal services. Through formal education, training, and experience, legal assistants have knowledge and expertise regarding the legal system and substantive and procedural law which qualify them to do work of a legal nature under the supervision of an attorney. The ABA also has a similar definition-A legal assistant or paralegal is a person qualified by education, training or work experience who is employed or retained by a lawyer, law office, corporation, governmental agency or other entity who performs specifically delegated substantive legal work for which a lawyer is responsible. Whether you are given the title of a paralegal or legal assistant is dependent on the firm. Some firm's give legal secretaries the title of legal assistant and paralegals are paralegals. Dependent on the firm.

Good for you, for asking: The lines are blurring in the field of Law. But it is generally viewed like this: Legal Assistants have generally got the position where they are by EXPERIENCE. Paralegals have generally got the position where they are by having a DEGREE. (Usually a BACHELORS) The line is VERY fine. But Paralegals are one slight notch above Legal Assistants because of their degrees. They are ALMOST the same thing - but not exactly the same thing - the line is very fine. Also, one company will call you a Paralegal and another company will call you a Legal Assistant - I have seen companies call their Legal Secretaries "Paralegals", when they clearly were NOT (they had NO formal training at all). Companies that issue "certificates" will often say they are one and the same, simply because their main goal is to get members. But when you get out into the "real" world, you'll realize that there IS a difference. MOST Legal Assistants do not have a formal education. Warning! Jobs in the field of Law are drying up FAST!! This is not a good field to invest time and/or money into. This is a SHRINKING vocational field. Many reasons. Many people today think they can do their own legal work, thanks to the Internet. We simply have WAY TOO MANY Legal Professionals - we have an absolute GLUT!! ("Legal Professionals" includes, but is not limited to: Attorneys/Lawyers, Paralegals, Legal Assistants, Legal Secretaries, Bailiffs, Court Reporters, etc, etc) Regarding being a Paralegal: Paralegals can be found in many types of businesses. Employers (usually law firms) generally in the field of Law want employees with BACHELORS degrees. Those "certificates" you see advertised aren't worth the paper they are printed on - they are generally SCAMS. Even IF you finish law school, you won't be able to find a job when you are done. Since this vocational field is shrinking, many new attorneys/lawyers are, themselves, having to work "down" as Paralegals, Legal Assistants, Legal Secretaries, Bailiffs, Court Reporters, etc, etc, to simply try to keep some of THEIR bills paid <THIS would be your competition. And the competition is FIERCE!! Now... the law schools know this, but they won't tell you the truth >that the job market/economy is SATURATED with WAY TOO MANY Legal Professionals. Instead the schools will feed you a fairytale and will LIE to you. The root of the problem is we have too many law schools. We are in a recession, and the schools are fighting for their own survival - they will tell students ANYTHING to get to the students' money. (Which is why they won't tell you the truth about the job market for the field of Law.) AND these schools continue to recruit and churn out even MORE Legal Professionals............. If you don't believe me, then just do a SEARCH here on Yahoo Answers to see what other posters are saying about the current status of the field of Law. In the book "So You Want to be a Lawyer? by Marianne Calabrese and susanne Calabrese (ISBN 0-88391-136-1): "The United States has more lawyers than any other country in the world. About 38,000 students graduate EACH YEAR from 200 law schools in the United States. The competition is very keen for jobs and clients." If you want a JOB when you are done with your studies, consider and look into the field of >>>HEALTHCARE! <THIS is where the jobs are! and scholarships! Good luck. (This was intended as personal opinion, and not intended to be used as legal advice.)
Answered by mailaccount63

A legal assistant can run/manage a small office and they can do the attorney's work only to have him check it over before it's sent out. They still do the answering of phones and setting meetings and such. A judicial assistant works with the files at the courthouse and readies the judges paperwork for court. A paralegal in the law firms I've been in can manage a group of people as in a word processing department. They can also go with the attorney into court and do runner work for the attorney. They can review court proceedings and summarize them. Sometimes (depending on the case) they can take a deposition. NALA advised me I could be a paralegal on my own as a business if I wanted to do that, however our judges here say no and that there are only certain things a paralegal can do for the court and that they must use the forms provided by the court and can only fill in the blanks as the client tells them the info to put into those blanks. I noticed the person responding above stated these kinds of jobs are drying up fast (one reason is that there have been too many schools graduating paralegals, and the other is that these jobs have gone overseas with just one person in America checking their work). But these jobs have been drying up since 1990.
Answered by sophieb