Law being a dynamic subject has evolved with globalisation. To complement and supplement lawyers, a new breed of professionals called Paralegals have emerged.
Legal services are not confined to advocates, who are not only practicing in courts but also take in its sweep academicians in law, judges, policy makers, public officials and social activists. In view of globalisation, advocates need to be trained to meet the new challenges and dimensions of internationalisation, where the nature and organisation of law and legal practice are undergoing an exemplar shift.
The expanse of their knowledge needs research and assistance not only in relation to legal developments, precedents and related insights but also an external support system, which does not necessarily involve experts from legal field. There is need for strengthening the legal realm with knowledge bank of graduates from various disciplines that can pool in their knowledge and work experience in the issues involved in the specific cases before the legal professional. Such persons are referred to as ‘Paralegals’.
Paralegals may be understood as the persons, who assist lawyers in their legal work. Paralegals are found to be working under lawyers in United States and United Kingdom. There is no uniformity as to the definition, job-role, status, terms and conditions of employment, training, regulation or anything else of paralegals.
Paralegals may be academicians, representatives and professionals from trade, commerce and industry, economists, social workers, environmentalists and others. They can provide original and path breaking inputs to lawyers to deal with the problem in hand with their knowledge and ideas in a meaningful manner. Legal professionals, in assisting their clients, have to suggest measures or remedies, which play decisive roles in their economic decisions, as clients are the actual stakeholders. They expect their lawyer to identify the key issues and suggest solutions. In view of globalisation, legal issues involve complicated issues of trade, commerce, industry, environment, foreign laws, corporate social responsibility, transborder laws and so on and so forth. Therefore, advocates are expected to match global standards.
Job of paralegals is to assist the lawyers and not to give legal advice or fix fees in any matter. They cannot appear before the courts. In the United States, paralegals have taken many different paths to their careers. These paths comprise an array of varying levels of education, different certifications, and on-the-job-training. They work in government, for law firms, for corporations, for real estate firms, and for non-profit organisations. Where they work and what they do, it often depends on their experience, skills, education, and certification.
In the US, while some paralegals have only on-the-job experience, others have completed a two-year course or bachelor’s degree in paralegal studies or in any other field. Some states also provide regular or post-baccalaureate paralegal certificate courses. In California, paralegal profession is regulated. Persons, who wish to become paralegals, must complete a twenty four semester unit paralegal programme at an accredited institution, approved by ABA.
Outside the United States, the paralegal profession is developing at a rapid rate in the UK. The National Association of Licensed Paralegals has been around for twenty two years and is the professional governing body for accredited paralegals. In the UK, there are now almost four thousand government registered or regulated paralegal advisory firms, offering services, which would previously have been offered by lawyers.
Paralegals usually use computer databases to retrieve, organise, and index various materials. Imaging software allows paralegals to scan documents directly into a database, while billing programmes help them to track hours billed to clients. Computer software packages are also used to perform tax computations and explore the consequences of various tax strategies for clients.
Paralegals can be employed by law firms, corporate legal departments, and various government offices. They can work in many different areas of the law, including litigation, corporate law, criminal law, labour laws, intellectual property, insolvency, family law, real estate etc. As the law becomes more complex, paralegals become more specialised. Within specialties, their functions are often broken down further.
The tasks of paralegals may differ widely. A corporate paralegal may assist lawyers with employee contracts, shareholder agreements, stock-option plans, and employee benefit plans. They also may help to prepare and file annual financial reports, maintain corporate minutes, record resolutions, and prepare forms to secure loans for the corporation. Corporate paralegals often monitor and review government regulations to update the corporation of new requirements. Corporate paralegals may perform supervisory responsibilities such as overseeing team projects.
Litigation paralegals may analyse legal material for internal use, maintain reference files, conduct research for lawyers, and collect and analyse evidence for agency hearings. They may prepare informative or explanatory material on laws, agency regulations, and agency policy for general use by the agency and the public. Paralegals employed in community legal-service projects may help the poor, the aged, and others, who are in need of legal assistance. They may file forms, conduct research, prepare documents, and when authorised by law, may represent clients at administrative hearings.
For induction of paralegals in substantial legal work, it becomes essential to address issues like:
Further, there needs to be started some preliminary course on training of paralegals, so that they can give a legal blend and bend to their knowledge. There needs to be drawn a code of ethics to fix their ethical and professional responsibilities as well as rules and disciplines for conducting enquiry into their misconduct.
One option can be revamping of legal education curriculum, which will have to be integrated with other disciplines, containing reading material of subjects relating to contemporary issues, including international and comparative law perspectives, social science, scientific knowledge, dynamics of economics as an integral part of undergraduate programme of law. Compelling aspiring lawyers essentially to study economics, rules of trade and commerce, environmental or any other laws as an integral and compulsory part of law course is not only unfair but also undesirable.
The situation can be equated with compelling an M.B.B.S. student to essentially undergo and learn courses of diagnostic tests and skills or nurse training courses. Diagnostic lab assistants or nurses supplement the practice of medical professionals, but they lie outside the essential structure of medico-studies. However, without their assistance, medical professionals will be handicapped to decide on the treatment of their patients.
In other cases, the doctors go in for specialised courses to enhance their skills. For instance, M.S. to gain expertise in surgery too, but a doctor with M.S. degree does not undermine the importance of a physician.
Similarly, some lawyers also opt for specialised fields of practice and join various fellowship programmes, diploma or degree courses to strengthen their hold in that specific field, but still they are not complete in themselves. Further, it is not possible for all lawyers to go for specialised courses.
Paralegals are persons, who supplement and complement legal professionals. Recruitment of paralegals will be like value addition to advocacy skills as well as it will also generate employment opportunities for graduates of other disciplines.
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