How To Select The Right Paralegal For Your Needs

A paralegal assists lawyers with regular duties to ensure the smooth running of the practice operations. A paralegal gathers and organizes evidence, conducts research, and prepares summaries and notes. Additionally, paralegals schedule and conduct meetings with clients and interviews. A paralegal also drafts and file legal document. Assistance from a paralegal allows a lawyer to stay extremely organized to allow multitasking and have a keen eye for detail.

Here’s how to tell the right paralegal for your needs

Corporate paralegal

This is a type of paralegal who works for an organization but not a single person. The roles of this paralegal include researching regulations, reviewing contracts, and looking for business impropriety. A business stays running because of the work of a corporate paralegal without breaking the law or important rules.

Corporate paralegals only interact with courts, clients, or the public on rare occasions. In fact, most of the work of this type of paralegal is behind the scenes. An ideal paralegal has an eye for detail and exceptional research skills. You need this kind of paralegal to work for the greater good of the whole team. Other tasks corporate paralegals handle include attending corporate meetings and preparing corporate resolutions.

Intellectual property paralegal

Patent attorneys need intellectual property paralegals. These come in handy when handling cases involving filing patents, trademark infringement, and any other matters regarding intellectual property. The roles of IP paralegals include researching IP legislation, handling correspondences, docketing, and trademark application among others. These paralegals are very helpful in securing patents and creating trademarks.

Immigration paralegal

When handling clients who need to put their immigration status in order, you need an immigration paralegal. These help immigrants organize and file legal documents regarding their status including petitions regarding deportation and application for political asylum. An ideal immigrant paralegal is multilingual since their roles involve helping immigrants speaking various languages. Additionally, these paralegals handle multitasking and communicate efficiently.

Real estate paralegal

This type of paralegal handles real estate matters but is supervised by a licensed attorney. A real estate paralegal doesn’t practice law as a licensed attorney but helps in various real estate legal matters such as:

• Undertaking title searches

• Preparation of the deed of trust drafts

• Preparation of mortgages

• Managing inheritance tax

• Handling real estate financing documents

Government paralegal

This king of paralegal handles the same roles as a regular paralegal with the only difference being the government as the client. Roles vary according to government office for this paralegal although some of the roles include legal aid assistance and outreach. A government paralegal assists deputy public defenders or city attorneys. This type of paralegal has keen attention to detail and works under pressure.

Family law paralegal

If you’re having a client with a custody dispute, you need a family law paralegal. The roles of this paralegal include preparation of pleadings, sending files to opposing counsel, organizing files, and drafting correspondences to attorneys, clients, and the court. In fact, family law paralegals spend most time corresponding with clients to keep them updated on particular cases.

Family circumstances cause emotional distress and require a family paralegal to empathize with your client. Custody battles are messy but this paralegal will be patient with your client throughout the whole ordeal.

Litigation paralegal

When handling clients who are in the middle of processing legal action, a litigation paralegal is necessary. There are various niches in the litigation field with popular ones including personal injury, bankruptcy, corporate affairs, and intellectual property. This paralegal will help you handle clients suing someone to avoid having too much on your plate.

Litigation paralegals help with tasks including interviewing witnesses, preparing trials, and overseeing discovery. Additionally, this paralegal can spend time in the courtroom too. If you’re a litigation lawyer, a litigation paralegal will help manage public perception of clients and find evidence to win the case in court.

Why use a paralegal

When needing a paralegal to help with your client needs, it pays to understand what is in for you. Paralegals provide legal representation and are licensed by the law society. A paralegal abides by all standards of professional conduct with exceptional competence. Paralegals have a limited scope of education compared to lawyers but this fine-tunes them to their areas of specialization. So, a paralegal is more specialized in their particular field of practice.

Other benefits of hiring a paralegal include:

• Saving time to do more billable work

• Passing on cost savings to clients

• Increasing your team’s flexibility

• Increasing efficiency with a specialized team

Bottom line

Guess by now you understand the type and nature of the paralegal for your needs. Luckily, you have also realized the need to get one for your needs by this time. Getting the right one will make a drastic change in your operations and ease your operations.