Paralegals Increasingly Vital To Law Firms
February 4, 2009
By the Best Paralegal Schools Content Team – Find Top Paralegal Programs Today!
An example of the growing importance of paralegals can be found in San Francisco, where city officials are clashing over the need to hire two of them for the public defender's office.
A recent San Francisco Chronicle report details the controversy that started with Public Defender Jeff Adachi's request for funds to fill two part time paralegal vacancies at the office.
When the request for $50,000 was denied, Adachi said that he would have to begin referring cases from his office to potentially more expensive private attorneys. City officials have now responded by accusing Adachi of failing to cut office expenses enough in the first place, and are threatening to seek new budget cuts from his office.
At the heart of the dispute is the work performed by paralegals and the savings that law firms and other entities can realize by employing them.
"Paralegals do the work that attorneys would otherwise have to do, but do it at a cheaper rate. When you have a case that has 10,000 documents that need to be reviewed and organized for trial, it’s cheaper to have a paralegal do it," said Adachi in a separate interview on BeyondChron.com.
If you are interested in joining the rapidly growing field of paralegal studies, take some time to check out the various options, both online and in the classroom, that are available to you.
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Related Article Topics: Paralegal Degree | Paralegal Career
