Paralegal Career for Dummies - Hatch, Lisa Zimmer

. .

Résumé :

Introduction 1

About This Book 2

Foolish Assumptions 2

Icons Used in This Book 3

Where to Go from Here 4

Part 1: A Snapshot of the Exciting And Lucrative Paralegal Profession 5

Chapter 1: Discovering the Paralegal Profession 7

Almost a Lawyer: What a Paralegal Does 7

Researching and analyzing the law 8

Playing Sherlock: Interviewing and investigating 8

Convening with clients 9

Administrating the legal environment 9

On the Job: Where Paralegals Work 11

The six-figure paralegal: Working for the big firm 11

Jack- or Jill-of-all-trades: Working for the small firm 12

Spreading the love: The pro bono paralegal 12

Working for the government 12

Doing it your way: The paralegal as independent contractor 13

What it Takes: The Skills, Knowledge, and Training You Need 13

The paralegal personality 14

Paralegal know-how 15

Education and experience: Two ways to train 16

Chapter 2: Membership Has its Privileges: Paralegal Associations and Their Certification Exams 19

To Join or Not to Join 19

Characterizing the types of associations 20

Weighing in on whether or not to join an association 21

Deciding Whether to Get Certified 22

Choosing a certification exam 22

Weighing the pros and cons of paralegal certification 24

Chapter 3: The Hunt is On: Securing a Paralegal Position 25

Finding the Perfect Job 25

Traditional sources: Scanning the job boards and turning to placement services 26

Networking: It's who you know 27

Creating the Documentation 28

Killer cover letters 28

Ravishing resumes 30

Developing an online profile 33

Setting Up Shop: Starting a Freelance Paralegal Business 34

Part 2: Important Legal Concepts Every Paralegal Should Know 37

Chapter 4: All Rise: The American Judicial System 39

Everything Old Is New Again: The Importance of Legal Precedence 40

Checks and Balances: Branches of U.S Government 42

The rule makers: The legislative branch 44

The enforcers: The executive branch 45

The interpreters: The judicial branch 46

Playing Fair: Levels of the U.S Judicial System 46

The federal judicial system 47

State judicial system 50

Local judicial systems 53

Judge and Jury: The U.S Jury System 54

Order in the court: The bench trial 55

Petition to your peers: The jury trial 55

Chapter 5: The Big Three: Categories of Law 57

Cutting Through the Red Tape: Administrative Law 58

Building the bureaucracy: Government agencies 58

Playing by the rules: Administrative law practices 59

Getting your way: Informal and formal advocacy 61

Eliminating Any Reasonable Doubt: The Nature of Criminal Law 63

Building blocks: Elements of criminal liability 64

High crimes and misdemeanors: Classes of crimes 65

Maintaining Polite Society: Civil Law 68

The victor's spoils: Equitable relief and money damages 68

Beyond dessert: Tort law 69

Sealing and unsealing the deal: Contract law 76

Chapter 6: Taking a Case to Trial: The Litigation Process 79

Constructing the Criminal Case 79

Charging the defendant 79

Pushing through criminal pre-trial procedures 82

Tackling criminal trial procedure 86

Tying loose ends with criminal post-trial procedure 87

Carrying Through a Civil Case 89

Initiating the civil process 90

Proceeding through pre-trial tasks 94

Tr...

Sommaire:

Scott and Lisa Hatch are founders of The Center for Legal Studies and developed their award-winning paralegal curriculum in 1980, offering it through 600 colleges nationwide. They continue to instruct legal career and standardized test preparation courses through Hatch Education and College Primers....