WHAT IS A PARALEGAL?
The National Federation of Paralegal Associations, Inc. ("NFPA"), defines a paralegal as follows:
"A paralegal/legal assistant is a person qualified through education, training or work experience to perform substantive legal work that requires knowledge of legal concepts and is customarily but not exclusively, performed by a lawyer. This person may be retained or employed by a lawyer, law office, governmental agency or other entity or may be authorized by administrative, statutory or court authority to perform this work."
WHAT IS A FREELANCE PARALEGAL?
A freelance paralegal, also known as a contract paralegal is no different than a paralegal who is employed at a law firm, governmental agency or corporation. The difference is that a freelance paralegal is retained on an as-needed basis by a supervising attorney.
There are many varied settings in which freelance paralegals work:
- In a freelance paralegal business owned by a paralegal who performs paralegal work
- A partnership of freelance paralegals working in different areas of law to diversity the services they offer
- Traditionally employed paralegals performing occasional work outside the scope of his/her regular employment
Regardless of what setting, a freelance paralegal must comply with the applicable legal authority governing unauthorized practice of law. Neither traditional nor freelance paralegals my engage in the unauthorized practice of law such as:
- giving legal advice
- setting, negotiating and/or accepting legal fees
- signing legal documents
- representing a client in court
The National Federation of Paralegal Associations ("NFPA") stresses the ethical considerations of performing freelance paralegal work. To find out more information regarding the Model Code of Ethics and Professional Responsibility and Guidelines as published by the NFPA, visit http://www.nfpa.org.
ATTN: SOLO/SOHO (small office/home office) ATTORNEYS!
If you can answer three the five questions below,
then you should consider outsourcing a virtual Paralegal!
1. Are you overwhelmed with work an experience paralegal can take off your hands?
2. Do you have e-mail to sort? Need a professional, and experience telephone operator to answer, return, and follow-up on calls you really cannot find the time to accomplish?
3. Do need a paralegal that is initiative driven, and have a can-do and anything is possible if you try attitude?
4. Do you have a deadline to mail out letters, and legal correspondence to your clients, but cannot get to it? Are you preparing for trial, and need dynamic, and experienced paralegal to prepare your trial notebooks, long cause packages?
5. Do you have an upcoming trial and Deposition Transcripts that still need summarization? Having summaries of prior testimony allows you to fill in the gaps before trial. Deposition Summaries provide valuable information in a useable format for use in deposition or trial preparation.
If you answered YES! to all of the above questions, then add TaylorLegal Virtual Services "TLVS" to your list of New Year’s Resolution for 2010!!
You have made a leap, and big step to delegate these daughting task to a Certified Paralegal/Assistant; there is no turning back, TLVS is your One-Stop, and Final-Stop to Freelance Virtual Paralegal. TLVS comprised of experience executive liaison, who can run your virtual office from their virtual office. We are not your typical Virtual assistant! We have the in-depth, law office, and in-house experience, and know what it takes to get the job done fully!