Independent paralegals can provide divorce services and facilitation services serving the public and building a successful business.
You may think that it’s not ethical to be an freelance paralegal and serve the public but actually you can have a very successful paralegal career helping clients through a difficult time and practice within the law. If you just focus on assisting your clients through the process without giving legal advice then you’ll be able to help them resolve their legal issue without having to litigate.
How can you do this? Is it possible to help clients without giving legal advice? California has actually introduced a new profession called Legal Document Assistants (LDA’s). As an LDA, you can do three things:
- Type documents under your clients supervision
- File documents for your clients
- Give them information prepared by attorneys to help them understand the process
I believe that you can take these three steps and use them in almost any other state. There are also a few other states where you can perform as a legal document preparer, such as Florida and Arizona. However, there are other states where they might haul you off to jail—states like Texas, Virginia, etc. What to do in those states?
Add a fourth step, which is: limited scope representation. You find a couple of attorneys who specialize in the area of law that you want to practice and arrange for them to consult with your clients for a set fee. That way, you can do the legal forms and filings, and they can provide consultation and representation, if needed, to your clients. What a win-win this is. Your clients still get through the process without litigating and save thousands of dollars, and both you and the attorney(s) get new clients.
We all know that the legal field is changing and this is an opportunity for you to have a successful legal career as an independent paralegal. Why take a job working as a paralegal when you can be independent and really help people?
