legal services
Until the mid-1980s, hardly anyone in the UK would have considered making a career as a paralegal, not because they didn't think it was a proper legal services job but because they had not heard of the term 'paralegal' or understood how this important role fitted into a modern law practice and, indeed, other forms of employment.
Since the time of Charles Dickens and before, legal services practices have employed clerks to carry out administrative jobs under the supervision of a solicitor or barrister but they were not able to earn qualifications or carry out any work which had to be authorised by a qualified lawyer.
As UK law has become more wide ranging and more people have recourse to legal advice or action for a number of reasons, so the business of solicitors has increased and they have needed to devolve some of their work load to assistants or paralegals.
Some of these employees would not recognise themselves as paralegals but are called managers, administrators, clerks and similar terms. The term 'legal support staff' is commonly used to describe jobs such as secretaries, accountants, HR officers and couriers whose jobs are with a law firm, the police or public body, but do not do actual legal work.
Anyone may call him or herself a paralegal and it is not a criminal offence to do so or offer legal advice except in three circumstances. These are: activities listed as for solicitors only in the Solicitors Act 1974; dealing with immigration work unless registered with the Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner; and some types of claims and compensation work which need to be registered with the Ministry of Justice.
Tag: legal services
