Paralegal certificates in an ABA
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Why should you only consider an ABA accredited online law school? This article will show you what a paralegal does, how to become a paralegal and why is it really essential that you graduate from an aba accredited online school.
A paralegal is defined as someone qualified by education, training or work experience who is employed or retained by a lawyer, law office, corporation, government agency or other entity who performs specifically dedicated substantive legal work for which a lawyer is responsible”.
A paralegal is limited in the tasks that he or she can under take. She cannot represent a client in a trial, accept a case or offer legal advice. They do however perform vital functions, such as finding and interviewing witnesses, carrying out research, and drafting legal documents.
If you want to become a certified paralegal or Certified Legal Assistant (CLA), you need to first graduate from an aba accredited online law school with a paralegal certificate or an associate degree program or a paralegal certificate program. You will need to have spent over 60 hours in semesters, of which at least 15 hours will have contained a serious amount of legal detail.
There are a few alternatives to this. If you have any bachelor’s degree, and one years experience as a legal assistant (with 15 hours training as a legal assistant either via courses or lectures), or the rather slower method – only have a high school diploma and 7 years experience as a legal assistant under the supervision of a member of the bar.
If you want to directly become a paralegal – you will need to graduate with a paralegal certificate program. You can find details of this from any aba-accredited online law school. Different schools have different approaches – some offer the course via practical experiences, some ask for classroom lectures, while other paralegal certificates (the ones you will almost certainly be interested in), can be acquired online.
The entry requirements are very variable. Some recommend a degree before they will seriously consider your application, while other online law schools are happy to accept you with as low as 3.0 GPA.
You must remember at the end of the day, as graduating as a paralegal will open to you a host of opportunities, and with a lot of dedication, patience and discipline, you can end up where ever you dream of going.
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