If you want to get an idea of what different jobs pay in different parts of the country, here’s what the Department of Labor thinks. The data covers all sorts of employers, from nonprofits to government to the private sector, so there will be variation within each level.
Maybe at the unemployment office, or at any local community college with an adult degree program.
Or use Google and search career counselors and your town name.
If I may be blunt for a moment, if you can’t figure out how to look for a paralegal program, then maybe it’s not the right job for you.
Definitely at the Department of Labor, which even the most podunk of podunk towns should have (if not within the town itself, certainly within reasonable driving distance). A community/junior college may not have career counselors available to people who aren’t students, but if there’s a GED or adult education program at your local high school, they can certainly point you in the right direction.
Ow.
Local entry level pays less than what I’m getting now.
Not for the program, as I’ve located several, but for Doper opinion on the career.
It seems rather mixed.
Was Benny on LA Law a paralegal?
No, he was the mail “boy”. Corbin Bernsen’s secretary (I don’t remember her character’s name), IIRC, was doing quasi-paralegal work some years into the series, interviewing clients and such. To me it seemed more “glorified administrative assistant” than actual paralegal.
To the OP: I know a few people who went through a paralegal program at our local community college a few years ago. Only one, I believe, is still working as one. The rest of them couldn’t find any work. One of them was told that a firm would rather train one of their admin assistants to be one rather than hire somebody from the “outside”.
If I may hijack briefly, what exactly is a paralegal? Well, other than someone who was completed a course of instruction. Is there any task a paralegal can do that a private citizen could not? I have non-attorney representatives appear before me all the time, but can’t recall any ever saying they re paralegals. In my old job, it was simply a requirement for a higher pay grade than law clerks- or whatever specific title was given to other folk doing the exact same work.
I suspect that much in the same way firms and clients are seeking to save cash by having tasks performed by non-attorneys rather than attys, they may well realize a reasonably bright clerk or secretary could readily be trained to do paralegal work at a lower hourly rate.
What is the current state of Albanian blood feuds? Bloody? Or not so much?
I must know!
Admin law is pretty much the only area where non-attorney representation is allowed, isn’t it?
(bolding mine)
That’s exactly what happened with the people I knew who went though our local paralegal course. One was turned down everywhere she applied because already had a BA, and, as they told her, “Why would we hire you when you can just as easily apply to law school?” In other cases the jobs almost always went to somebody already in-house re that exact scenario bolded above.
Pretty bloody, lots of unsolved murders. Good enough to work to our client’s advantage anyway.
It’s a large area.
A paralegal is any non lawyer who knows more than the average bear about some aspect of the law. A paralegal can be a law student or law graduate who hasn’t been admitted, a trial assistant who prepares and presents evidence, an office staff member with a good amount of practical knowledge in a particular area. Experienced paralegals prepare motions and can make non lawyer appearances. They can participate in depositions and do client intake interviews on their own.
Generally speaking, a paralegal has some discretion within the narrow frame of their expertise. Usually their knowledge is practical.
In my state, a degree or certification is almost unknown. Most seem to work up from legal secretary by showing some aptitude and enthusiasm for the work.
In immigration law, certain employees of nonprofit organizations can become accredited to represent people formally in immigration proceedings, including before the Office of the Immigration Judge (aka Immigration Court). Accreditation is a huge PITA. Info here.
And again, there are paralegals, and there are paralegals. I can’t represent people in court or before administrative agencies, but I take CLE courses for which attorneys can receive required CLE credits, and I know more about immigration law than any attorney who doesn’t practice immigration law, and quite a number of those who do. And, for example, I know more about employment-based immigration than the attorneys in my immigration practice group who primarily focus on other areas of immigration.
Sure, there are paralegals in our group who started off as admin assistants. But I bet they know more about how to actually get things done, immigration-wise, than any newly minted attorney without specialized immigration experience.
At many colleges or universities, the career services department is available to alumni, so you could check with your alma mater.
Thanks. Enough of my hijack. I just was a little confused. As Eva says, there are paralegals and paralegals - law clerks and law clerks. In the CC my wife taught at, they taught a very broad introduction to various legal topics, writing, and research. For the same reason I find much of legal education worthless, such general training is of extremely limited use in actually doing any specific attorney work. IMO&E, requiring a paralegal degree mainly provides a CYA for someone wishing to hire in at a certain level, or to decline to promote someone to a higher pay level.
I’ve had secretaries who could draft all kinds of documents for my signature, and law clerks who could probably have done my job as well as I. Neither of whom had a paralegal degree. One of my best buddies is a paralegal - and is currently sitting in a cube outside my office doing work any reasonably intelligent person could be trained to do.