Paralegal Online Degree: Legit Or Scam?

Article by Elijah James

When you hear the word paralegal, legal assistants should be the first thing to your mind. The paralegals work under the assistance of the attorneys to earn their living. Law is always considered as one of the highest paid profession. But the million dollar question is, are the degree programs worth your money? The stat shows that a legal assistant earn around K/year while the initial salary is K.

With the progress of the degree programs in almost every field, law is also not left far behind. There are many colleges offering different duration online degree programs. To choose the best online degree program is a tougher question. The paralegal-programs have a 2-year Associate’s program, a 4-year Bachelor’s program or a simple certification program.

The reason people prefer this paralegal-online-degree are that these are the visa for your entry into the industry. One should have a complete knowledge about the paralegal-degree. There is a difference between a certification and a degree. The most important point to note is that in USA, the American Bar Association has not accredited any certification paralegal-online degree programs. The process of getting approved for such certification is tough and time consuming. Plus making it to the approved list is a long journey that most of the institutes don’t bother to travel. But to amaze you the most, there are many students falling for these certifications not knowing that at the end of the day, they will be at a complete loss.

There are a few approved colleges in the paralegal-online programs, but the approval is only for 7 years and then a renewal is required. The ABA is in favor of the educational programs but not the paralegal certifications. It might be disheartening to some but as a matter of fact, ABA will soon start to approve the certification.

There is no specific level of education required to be a part of any attorney. One doesn’t even need a paralegal-online degree to assist a lawyer. Earning a paralegal-online-degree, doesn’t entitle you to get a job with some attorney. And even if you get a job to assist an attorney, he is solely responsible for your actions. You are not answerable to any of the cases that you handled. The attorney needs to be answering. Its not a bad choice to go for a paralegal-online-degree but don’t go for the paralegal certification.