What is a paralegal?
Legal assistants and paralegals are individuals who assist lawyers in the delivery of legal services. Legal assistants and paralegals cannot give legal advice to consumers of legal services. Legal advice may only be relied upon if given by an attorney. All states require attorneys to be licensed and most have statutes imposing penalties for the unauthorized practice of law. The NFPA adopted the following definition for Paralegal: A Paralegal is a person, qualified through education, training or work experience to perform substantive legal work that requires knowledge of legal concepts and is customarily, but not exclusively, performed by a lawyer. This person may be retained or employed by a lawyer, law office, governmental agency or other entity or may be authorized by administrative, statutory or court authority to perform this work. The following definition was adopted by the NALA membership in 1986. Definition: Legal assistants, also known as paralegals, are a distinguishable group
The American Bar Association adopted the following definition, effective September 1, 1997: 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 and who performs specifically delegated substantive legal work for which a lawyer is responsible.
The American Bar Association defines a paralegal as: 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 and who performs specifically delegated substantive legal work for which a lawyer is responsible.
The definition of a paralegal adopted by the New York State Bar Association is as follows: A legal assistant/paralegal is a person who is qualified through education, training or work experience to be employed or retained by a lawyer, law office, governmental agency, or other entity in a capacity or function that involves the performance, under the ultimate direction and supervision of, and/or accountability to, an attorney, of substantive legal work, that requires sufficient knowledge of legal concepts such that, absent such legal assistant/paralegal, the attorney would perform the task.See the Paralegal Utilization section of this web site for additional information.
The National Association of Legal Assistants (“NALA”) adopted the following definition in 1986: A legal assistant or paralegal is a person qualified by education, training or work experience, employed or retained by a lawyer, law office, corporation, governmental agency or other entity, and performs specifically delegated substantive legal work for which a lawyer is responsible. The American Bar Association (ABA) adopted the following definition in 1997: 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. Pursuant to California Business & Professions Code 6450 (a): A paralegal is a person who holds himself or herself out to be a paralegal, who is qualified by
