What Is a Legal Paraprofessional?

Video Transcript

"You may have heard about the rapidly expanding field of law and you want to get into it. You're not really qualified to go to law school and become a lawyer but you've heard about legal paraprofessionals and you want to know what are they, what do they do and so forth. Hello, I'm Robert Todd and I'm here to answer the question what is a legal paraprofessional. Well first of all, they're more commonly known today as paralegals and they can do the same things that legal assistants do and that is assist lawyers in the practice of law. The lawyer remains responsible for what they do but they get to do a lot of things such as interview clients, interview witnesses, actually participate in trials by bringing the file folders and having the information necessary to try the case accessible and available to the lawyer. It's as if they are the lawyer's right hand person. They do not actually practice law because only the lawyer can do that and only the lawyer is ultimately responsible for making legal decisions. But they do actively participate in the preparation of cases and in trying those cases. I'm Robert Todd and thank you for watching."