A common question I am asked is whether it is just as good to hire an
attorney or a paralegal. This blog will answer this question and
highlight the pros and cons of hiring a paralegal rather than retaining a
licensed attorney.
Attorney v. Paralegal:
Attorney:
individuals who have spent at least 3-4 years in graduate school
obtaining a Juris Doctorate degree after they obtained a bachelor
degree, at least 4 years in school. After these individuals receive
their Juris Doctorate degree, they will take the state bar examination
in their state, and this takes another 6 months from the time that they
graduate and find out the exam results. So, the typical amount of time
to become a licensed attorney is around 8-9 years. Also, after the
person passes the state bar examination, they have continuing
educational requirements.
Trained Paralegal:
a normal paralegal certificate takes about 1-2 years to obtain. There
are great paralegal programs online and in person that prepares a person
to draft legal documents and to conduct legal research. These
individuals are a GREAT asset to the legal profession, but legally they
cannot give out legal advise, only a licensed attorney is allowed to do
so. The best paralegals work as a team with attorneys who review their
documents so the client is protected.
Rogue Paralegal:
The real problem is with these rogue paralegals who have NEVER taken
one law school class. They do not know what forms to fill out, what
legal arguments to raise, and what legal theories are coming into play.
Bottom line: they are just taking advantage of the "poor people" and
taking their hard earned money.
Unfortunately, there are these rogue
paralegals who just are great smooth talkers (should have been used car
salesmen) and charge big bucks to mess up a case that an attorney will
later on need to take on in order to correct what this rogue paralegal
has done.
Pro's of Trained Paralegals:
1. For simple documents
to be prepared, such as a simple will, simple non contested divorce,
simple child custody agreement, paralegals are a great cost saving
alternative. However, even if it is simple legal task, please ensure
that the paralegal has an attorney working with them to review the end
product. We have taken over cases where even trained paralegals have
messed up. In one instance, we saw one paralegal draft a marital
settlement agreement in a long term marriage (over 10 years) and
terminated spousal support, where the person could have received spousal
support until death or remarriage. That was one costly mistake for the
client, and we were hired to undo the paralegals mistake. So, the
client thought they would be saving $$ by hiring the paralegal and ended
up paying an attorney more money to undo the paralegal's mistake.
Con's of Paralegals:
1.
They are not licensed and have no board overseeing their level of
competence. They can be completely incompetent, but talk a good
game--but this is a costly mess for the client. We have seen some
paralegals ask for $5,000.00 to draft a simple motion, and a licensed
attorney would have charged about half of this amount, and completed the
task correctly.
Pro's of Licensed Attorneys:
1. Not only do
you get what you pay for, but you get the job done right with a licensed
attorney in your particular field of law that you need legal help
with. Licensed attorneys have paid their dues and know their business.
A licensed attorney is able to work with a trained paralegal, and this
is a win-win situation for the client. Not only does the client get
great savings, about $100.00 per hour as opposed to the attorney's
billable rate of $250-$400 per hour, but also the client will get
correct legal advise. Also, the licensed attorney is governed by their
state Bar association.
Con's of Licensed Attorneys:
1. Some are too high, but if you get a great attorney/paralegal team, you can save money and have your legal case done right.
Therefore,
the next time you need to hire a legal representative, the best is to
hire an attorney who has a paralegal on staff to save you billable
hours. The worst situation is to hire a rogue paralegal who calls
themselves such names as "Last Name" and Associates, and you believe you
are hiring an attorney but it turns out to be a rogue paralegal who
will take your hard earned $$ and run out of the country,
literally--we've known them unfortunately.
These Rogue Paralegals are climbing in your wallets and taking your hard
earned cash--hide your money, hide your case, and your credit cards
too.
AttorneyKaren is a legal advisor and is ready to answer your legal questions today.
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