Paralegal Consultant Duties
A paralegal consultant is an essential personnel position in law offices across the world. A paralegal is a legal assistant to the lawyer or lawyers in a law office concerning cases. Unlike an office assistant, paralegals perform a number of duties that help lawyers find legal information and win cases.
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Research
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The sheer bulk of legal information necessary to win a case requires multiple people to help one lawyer find appropriate legal facts and information. This is a paralegal's main duty on an everyday basis. Paralegals are often sent to law libraries or research online court cases and laws to help a lawyer prepare for her case.
Drafting Legal Forms
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When a paralegal is not directly helping a lawyer with research, a paralegal may be drafting the necessary legal forms for court cases. Forms and letters that are sent to judges, clerks, defendants, or prosecutors are drafted by paralegals. Knowledge of legal language and structuring is a necessary tool for all paralegals to have so they can write appropriate statements concerning a legal case.
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Minor Law Duties
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Although a paralegal cannot give legal advice or represent a client, many legal forms are crafted by paralegals. Unlike forms given to parties involved in a civil or criminal case, forms such as mortgages, tax filings, estate and trust forms, and contracts are handled by paralegals. Paralegals will either help craft such forms for a law firm's clients or look over these forms to see if they are structured correctly.
Law Office Differences
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Although paralegals perform a number of duties, the actual tasks of a paralegal depend on the law firm. For example, a law firm that exclusively does work with corporate law will require its paralegals to be knowledgeable in economics and finance, along with knowing how to craft legal documents that are reflective of economic agreements and contracts. In contrast, a litigation paralegal may only perform legal research data for attorneys on civil and criminal cases.
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References
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