Paralegal

Research is an essential part of a lawyer’s work. You might think that lawyers know all the laws by heart and can show up at court on the fly, but this is far from the truth. Unless a lawyer is extremely specialized, she has to research each new case with the help of her team.

Paralegals help lawyers by doing background research on cases and areas of the law. Paralegals must know how to find accurate legal information. A part of their job is also zeroing in on what is needed for a particular case, rather than researching everything possibly linked to a subject. Paralegals summarize their research in a way that highlights the most important information and is quick and easy for the lawyer to understand.

For example, suppose Eric sees a lawyer because he has been charged with stealing from his employer. The lawyer will do research on the subject to build a case. A lawyer may ask a paralegal to:

• find out what the law says about theft, and find out if there is anything particular about theft from an employer
• look for judgements that are similar to Eric’s situation
• read books or articles on the subject

To carry out this research, a paralegal must be good at finding relevant laws, cases and other types of legal documents. She must be able to use:

• different databases (a database is an organized collection of laws, cases, documents, etc., usually divided by subject so that they can be searched easily)
• different systems for the classification of legal documents. For example each case is described and filed in a certain way depending on the name of the people involved, the date, and the court in which it took place.
• specialized publications, such as law journals, case reporters and books by experts

If you have ever walked by a courthouse, you have seen lawyers running about with their robes in garment bags, pulling heavy briefcases behind them. These briefcases hold documents the lawyers use to prove and argue their cases. The documents are prepared with the help of paralegals.

Paralegals organize case files, prepare legal documents and collect proof used in court.

You have probably noticed that legal work requires a lot of paper. Paralegals not only research and file documents --  they must also write them. Depending on the specialization of the lawyer they work with, paralegals end up writing the following types of documents:

• contracts and letters to clients
• wills. (Legal documents that outline people's wishes on what to do with their property after they die.)
• summaries for the lawyer that highlight important laws and describe cases the lawyer should know about
• documents called 'factums' that outline the lawyer’s arguments