Your Questions Answered - Paralegal Certificate

Q. What do paralegals do?

A. Paralegals work in a variety of industries and typically work hand-in-hand with an attorney. Here’s a list of typical tasks you would perform.

• Prepare legal documents, including briefs, pleadings, appeals, wills, contracts, and real estate closing statements.
• Prepare affidavits or other documents, maintain document files, and file pleadings with court clerks.
• Gather and analyze research data, such as statutes, decisions, and legal articles, codes, and documents.
• Investigate facts and law of cases to determine causes of action and to prepare cases.
• Interview witnesses to testify at hearings.
• Direct and coordinate law office activity, including delivery of subpoenas.
• Arbitrate disputes between parties and assist in real estate closing processes.
• Keep and monitor legal volumes to ensure law library materials are up-to-date.
• Appraise and inventory real and personal property for estate planning

Q. How do I know if I will like working as a paralegal?

A. Sometimes, the only way to discover if you love something is to go ahead and try it. Here are some questions you can ask yourself. If you answer yes to these, working as a paralegal may be a good choice for you. Also, if you are considering a career as an attorney, but aren't quite ready to make a commitment to law school, working as a paralegal can help you to decide if a career in law is a good fit for you.

• Attention to Detail -- Paralegals have to keep track of lots and lots and lots of details and be very careful about completing work, and make sure the work is accurate. You must really like detailed work and be well organized to be a successful paralegal. Does this sound good to you?
• Dependability -- Are you reliable, responsible, and dependable, and take pride in fulfilling your obligations?
• Cooperation -- Are you pleasant and do you display a good-natured, cooperative attitude?
• Initiative -- Are you willing to take on responsibilities and challenges?
• Stress Tolerance -- Can you accept criticism and deal calmly and effectively with high stress situations?
• Persistence -- Are you persistent about trying to overcome obstacles?
• Integrity -- Are you honest and ethical?
• Self Control -- Can you maintain your composure, keep your emotions in check, control anger, and avoiding aggressive behavior, even in very difficult situations?
• Achievement/Effort -- Do you set personally challenging goals and then work hard to achieve them?
• Adaptability/Flexibility -- Are you open to change (positive or negative) and do you like a lot of variety?
• Communication -- Can youspeak and write clearly?
• Curiosity -- Are you naturally curious and do you like to conduct research?
• Analytical -- Do you tend to analyze things that you read or situations that you are involved in?

Q. Where do paralegals work?

A. Paralegals work in a variety of industries in small towns, big towns, in cities and in both private and public organizations. Law offices, banks and financial-service companies, government agencies, large corporations, insurance companies and real estate firms are some of the industries that routinely hire paralegals.

Q. Do I need to be licensed to work as a paralegal?

A. No, there are no Georgia state licensing requirements for paralegals.

Q. How much money can I make?

A. According to Salary.com, you can work as a paralegal for about $41,000 annually in the Metro Atlanta area. After you’ve worked in the field for three years, you can start looking for more senior positions as a Paralegal II or Paralegal III. How quickly your salary increases will depend on the size company you work for, the type of law you work in and how well you master the skills and concepts you need to be effective.

Q. What’s the job outlook?

A. Great! The demand for paralegals has risen dramatically over the last decade. More paralegals than ever before are being employed by law offices, banks, government agencies, corporations and real estate firms.

Q. Are there additional fees for books or supplies?

A. Yes. Check individual course descriptions for more information. Books may be purchased at the KSU Center Bookstore, which is located in the same building as your classes. Remember -- you don't have to pay for all your books or your tuition at the same time. You only need to purchase books for whatever course(s) you are currently taking.