No matter where you go in the world, there will always be a demand for lawyers and legal services. Such is the reach of the law that almost every aspect of life — from businesses to family matters — can be placed under legal jurisdiction. Hence, it is no surprise that lawyers have a steady stream of work waiting for them in their daily practice.
Such is the workload of a lawyer that often they cannot accomplish all of the work alone. This is why law firms also employ paralegals, whose primary responsibility is to support and assist lawyers when preparing for cases, hearings, and trials. Such is the demand for paralegals to take the work off lawyers that many schools offer paralegal degrees, which enable individuals to practice paralegal functions.
Truly, it cannot be underscored how valuable a paralegal is to a legal team. Here are some of their most important contributions to a law firm:
Help law firms reduce costs
Although a paralegal performs functions that are similar to a lawyer (they cannot, however, take on or represent clients in court), paralegals are paid a smaller fraction of what is paid to lawyers. By hiring more paralegals in lieu of lawyers to accomplish more simple tasks, a law firm is thus able to reduce their expenses greatly. This, in turn, allows law firms to remain profitable and in business.
At the same time, by having paralegals take on the work of lawyers, the legal fees that the law firm will charge the clients could go down as a result of the lowered costs. Moreover, clients will not feel shortchanged by the services provided since paralegals can devote more time to interacting with the clients, thus making them feel like their case is important.
Help keep the management of the case organized
Legal cases can involve thousands of pages of documents and paperwork. This is incredibly time-consuming and painstaking to go through. Thus, it is part of the responsibilities of the paralegal to sort, organize, and archive all relevant documents properly so that they can easily be retrieved any time they are needed. This, in turn, makes dealing with the case much more efficient and productive.
Paralegals are also tasked with analyzing research material during a case. Thus, if a paralegal does the job well, even the way the case is handled and prepared for can be dramatically improved. By making sure all paperwork is organized, a paralegal makes it much easier for the legal team to navigate the intricacies of the case and thus best service the client.
Help free up the time of lawyers
Given how important the job they are doing is, the time of a lawyer is incredibly precious, not to mention pricey. Because of this, law firms and lawyers themselves would like to make sure that they make the most of their time and fully dedicate their limited time toward doing important work.
By taking much of the groundwork off lawyers, paralegals are able to help free up their time, leaving lawyers more time to work on how to deal with the case. This, in turn, helps lawyers focus all their effort on where it is supposed to be, and thus helps the firm provide better and more comprehensive and helpful legal services as well.
