Paralegal Salary

The paralegal job description is just similar to job of a lawyer. Paralegals do all the tasks that are supervised by a lawyer. Paralegals are generally regarded as lawyer assistants but they are only supposed to do the work that is assigned by the lawyer. Though they perform almost all the similar duties of a lawyer, they are not official lawyers. They do not have right to sign any legal documents of the clients or to give any legal advices to the clients. Paralegal salary depends on whether a paralegal is experienced or paralegal is certified or a paralegal who is just a starter. Generally a experienced and certified paralegal earns more. Know explicitly about paralegal salary details which are provided in /tables below.

Importance of certification in paralegal profession:

Getting certified is not a pre-requisite to the paralegals, but at times it becomes mandatory according to the type of employment and the industry they are working in. Now a days, most popular law firms are hiring the candidates who have paralegal degree along with paralegal certification. Certified paralegals are considered to have more skills and knowledge in advancement of legal technologies. So, many firms are looking forward to hire the paralegals who are certified. During the certification process, the paralegals will be taking various legal courses in which they are taught several law subjects, communication skills, etc. Once they are certified, they are regarded as professional paralegals which help them to excel in their career.

In order to acquire paralegal certification, a paralegal aspirant has to undergo rigorous training in law and should posses certain educational qualifications that are demanded by certification course.

The leading 4 organization that offer certifications to paralegals are as follows:

• National Association for Legal Professionals: This organization takes the certification test and certifies paralegals as professional paralegals.

• National Association of Legal Assistants: This organization is the most famous paralegal certification organization which has certified almost 15,000 paralegals. It takes the test of CPA and certifies the qualifies persons as CPA professionals. They are designated as certified legal assistants or certified paralegals.

• National Federation of Paralegal Associations: This organization also tops in offering certifications to paralegals and this is preferred by the candidates who desire the designation of registered paralegal. They conduct the PACE exam to the applicants and offers certification to the candidates who are qualified in the PACE examination.

• American Alliance of Paralegals: paralegals who want to achieve AACP certification can enroll their name in this organization.

All these organizations conduct certain certification tests and designates paralegals according to the certification they posses. In order to give a certification test, there are certain educational requirements that need to be satisfied by the applicants:

• An associate’s degree from any university/college.
• A Bachelor’s degree in any field from accredited college/university.
• Minimum one year work experience in the legal field.

Once they obtain the certification, they need to renew it after certain period of time by attending some certification classes later on. To continue the value of certification, they need to renew it regularly. Certification takes a major role in the profession of paralegals as several job factors will be depending on the certification they posses.

The following are the important skills that are to be present in paralegals to perform their job efficiently. Skills are required in major division to perform any duty or responsibility of a paralegal.

• Effective communication skills are very important to handle the duties and responsibilities of a paralegal.
• Excellent writing skills are mandatory as they need to prepare legal documents and case filings.
• They should be good at Investigation and research in order to identify required evidences of the cases.
• They should be having multi-tasking skills as they need to perform multiple tasks at a time.
• They should posses’ very good Organizational skills as they need to organize several
• They should posses a team spirit as they need to work in teams in some cases.
• They should have good command over computer as they need to work on computers while performing some of their job duties.
• They should be good at Organizing files as they need to file cases, prepare required documents and should also prepare the files with collected information on researched evidences.
• They should be good at arranging schedules as they need to plan lawyer’s work schedule in attending cases in the court rooms.
• They need to coordinate certain events with clients like interviewing witnesses etc. Analyzing evidence.
• They should be good at communication as they need to speak effectively and attend the phone calls of the lawyer.
• They should be having best analytical skills as they need to analyze the collected evidences of the cases.
• They should have a great command over the entire legal system and law procedures as hey need to perform legal research to assist lawyers in their work.

They need to validate information and should have good judging skills as they need to judge the apt evidences for the case.

How paralegal salary is estimated?

In United States, there are over 263,800 candidates who are in to paralegal field. The starting pay of a paralegal will be pretty low just like in any other profession. The beginning pay of a paralegal will be around $30,000 per annum. The pay is not so disappointing as it is just a starting pay. The starting income figure of paralegals can easily go up as they gain the experience in the field and their skills they are expertise in.

The paralegal salary can simply be stated as standard type salary. It just starts out with a small figure and increases according to experience, employer type, geographical location, industry type and type of certification they hold.

The below chart depicts the salary of the paralegals according to experience they hold:

The table below states out the salary details according to State:

The chart below depicts the salary of a paralegal as per the cities:

The chart below depicts the salary of a paralegal according to the certificate they hold: