The Difference Between Paralegal and Legal Assistant

By Jamaluddin Abdul Muthalib

A Paralegal also called "legal assistant", with special training but has not earned a law degree. A Paralegal is work under supervision of a lawyer. Your attorney may employ a paralegal or legal assistant to perform basic legal tasks and/or facilitate conversation between you and your attorney.

A Paralegal works in the legal profession, typically responsible for researching, analyzing and managing the daily tasks for cases.

Legal assistants and paralegals are individuals who assist lawyers in the delivery of legal services. Legal assistants and paralegals cannot give advice to consumers of legal services. Legal advice may only be relied upon if given by an attorney. All states require attorneys to be licensed and most have statutes imposing penalties for the unauthorized practice of law. The following definition was adopted by the NALA membership in 1986.

A Paralegal also a distinguishable group of persons who assist attorneys in the delivery of legal services. Through formal education, training and experience, assistants have knowledge and expertise regarding the system and substantive and procedural law which qualify them to do work of a legal nature under the supervision of an attorney.

In recognition of the similarity of the definitions and the need for one clear definition, in July 2001, the NALA membership approved a resolution to adopt the definition of the American Bar Association as well. The ABA definition reads as follows:

An assistant or paralegal is a person qualified by education, training or work experience who is employed or retained by a lawyer, law office, corporation, governmental agency or other entity who performs specifically delegated substantive legal work for which a lawyer is responsible. (Adopted by the ABA in 1997).