Seeking Legal Aid: Can Paralegals Give Legal Advice?

There are about 300,000 paralegals working throughout the U.S. right now. Even though the paralegal profession has only been around for about 50 years now, it’s become a very popular professional for those interested in working in the legal industry.

Those who specialize in providing legal services day in and day out know all about the importance of paralegals within the industry. But those outside of the industry aren’t always 100% sure what paralegals are or what they do.

So, what is a paralegal? What do paralegals do? And can paralegals give legal advice?

These are just a few of the questions we’re going to set out to answer in this article. It’ll give you a great overview of what you can expect from paralegals you might cross paths with when obtaining legal services.

Learn all about paralegals and their role within the legal industry below.

What Is a Paralegal?

Before we talk about what paralegals do and answer the question, “Can paralegals give legal advice?”, it’s important for you to understand what a paralegal is. So let’s kick things off there.

A paralegal is a person who works underneath a lawyer at a law firm and helps them with a variety of tasks. As long as a paralegal is being supervised by a lawyer, they can work on a lot of different legal projects.

You could make the argument that the best lawyers are the best at what they do because of the paralegals they hire to work with them. Paralegals tend to do much of the heavy lifting within a law firm’s offices to keep it afloat.

What Do Paralegals Do?

Now that you have a general idea of what it is that paralegals do, we want to break down some of the more specific tasks they take on. It’ll give you a better appreciation for what it is that paralegals bring to the table.

One of the biggest responsibilities paralegals have is communicating with a lawyer’s clients. Although the lawyer will also play a part in this, it’ll be their paralegals who will work to keep clients up to date on the latest developments in their cases.

Paralegals are also in charge of tackling many other tasks within a law firm’s offices. Here are just a few of them:

Review a lawyer’s client files and make sure they’re organized
Carry out legal research for a lawyer as necessary and provide them with important information
Put legal documents together for a lawyer
Interview clients and any witnesses who may be involved in their case
Make a law firm more efficient by taking on any unexpected assignments that might pop up

As you can clearly see, paralegals are the lynchpins of many law firms. They’ll be involved in almost everything that goes on, and they’ll take on tasks while a lawyer looks after them to ensure they’re doing things properly.

Can Paralegals Give Legal Advice?

Paralegals will typically spend so much time communicating with a lawyer’s clients that it isn’t out of the ordinary for clients to ask them for legal guidance. Clients might not think twice about doing it since paralegals will be so involved in their cases.

But at the end of the day, the answer to the question, “Can paralegals give legal advice?”, is a resounding “no!” Since paralegals aren’t actually lawyers, they cannot provide legal advice to any clients who ask them for it.

Any time paralegals communicate with a lawyer’s clients, they’ll need to go out of their way to let them know they aren’t giving legal guidance. They could get themselves into big trouble if a lawyer finds out they were advising one of their clients.

What Else Can’t Paralegals Do?

Giving out legal advice to clients is just one of the many things that paralegals can’t do. There is also a host of other things that paralegals won’t be permitted to do while working side-by-side with lawyers at law firms.

For instance, paralegals can’t decide if a lawyer is going to accept a case or reject it. It’ll be up to a lawyer to make an important decision like this.

Paralegals also aren’t allowed to accompany lawyers and/or clients to court or depositions in most instances. And if they do have to attend these things, they must identify themselves as paralegals so that others don’t mistake them for lawyers.

What Should You Do If You Need Legal Advice?

If you need legal advice, it might seem like it would be simple enough to call a random law firm and ask the first person you can get on the phone for help. But oftentimes, you’re going to speak with a paralegal or a legal assistant when you do this.

Rather than taking this approach to trying to get legal advice, you should contact a lawyer directly and make sure you get one on the phone to answer your questions. It’ll guarantee you’re able to get the best possible advice from the beginning.

If you don’t have any time to waste, calling on an instant lawyer for help would be your best bet. You’ll be able to get the legal advice you need in a hurry without putting a paralegal into a tricky spot where they want to help but can’t because of the ethical rules that are on the books.

Secure the Right Legal Guidance Now

The answer to the question, “Can paralegals give legal advice?”, might be “no,” but that doesn’t mean paralegals won’t play an important part in an upcoming legal case you’re involved in. You will likely rub elbows with them early and often while a lawyer is working on your case.

You should, however, always defer to an actual lawyer when you need legal guidance. They’ll be able to provide you with the answers you need to all your pressing legal questions.

Look for more articles on legal services by browsing through the rest of our blog.

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