Does Use Dictate? (From Improving Access to Justice: The Future of Paralegal Professionals -- Conference Proceedings, 1990, Canberra, Australia, P 117-123, 1991, Julia Vernon and Francis Regan, eds. -- See NCJ-129734)

• NCJ Number: 129750
• Author(s): B Vaughan
• Date Published: 1991
• Length: 7 pages
• Sale Source: Australian Institute of Criminology
• Publication Type: Conference Material
• Language: English
• Country: Australia

Annotation

Australia's legal history has tended to focus on judges and lawyers and has overlooked paralegal professionals who enabled these persons to gain prominence.

Abstract

Paralegals work in a varied legal environment and their training must reflect this variation. There are three distinct stages in the training of paralegals: (1) 2 years part-time with appropriate residential or inservice training to satisfy the need for a general education; (2) training to develop further qualifications such as a 2-year certificate course followed by another 2 years to obtain a diploma; and (3) orientation and legal phase where paralegals are able to take part-time courses to get a law degree if they so desire. The initial training stage will offer prospective employers the assurance that an individual who has fulfilled course requirements is a potentially useful employee. Introductory legal topics that need to be covered in this stage are the nature of law, legal history, the court system, and the Australian constitution. The second training stage should be completely separate and distinct from the first stage, and content should be dictated by the needs of the individual paralegal. The third training stage will enable the paralegal to become well-versed in certain areas of the law prior to obtaining a law degree. Legal practice courses represent the logical growth point from which an effective paralegal training system can emerge.