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Paralegal skills and establishing an Advice Centre

Paralegals and their role in the legal system

What is a paralegal?

A paralegal is an accredited person, who:

• has basic knowledge of the law and its procedures
• knows about conflict resolution procedures
• has the necessary motivation, commitment, attitude and skills to help people and communities with their legal, human rights, administrative, constitutional and developmental problems, while at the same time empowering them to tackle these matters on their own in future.

Paralegals use their knowledge and experience to help people with legal and other problems. A paralegal may investigate and refer matters to lawyers or relevant bodies for them to deal with. They can become educators on the law and rights for people in their communities. They can play a leading and supportive role in campaigns for improving community living standards and general community development.

Paralegals are not just mini-lawyers. Obviously they cannot assist people in court and other tribunals until they acquire the relevant qualification and accreditation. But more than this, their role is to look at a variety of methods, other than using the courts, to achieve long-term, sustainable solutions to peoples’ problems. Using the courts can bring quick relief which is important in many cases, but this is not always the case. Court cases can take a long time to be finalized, the costs involved are often huge and the outcome for a person may be negative. Paralegals should aim to deal with problems in a more holistic way.

Example

A woman and her children who are suffering from abuse at the hands of the husband and father, should be advised by a paralegal to apply for a Protection Order. But the paralegal should also see the bigger picture: the woman and her children are financially dependent on the husband and father for their survival so they cannot move out of the house unless they are supported in this process. The paralegal should therefore help the woman apply for Child Support Grants for her children and she should be referred to child welfare or to women abuse organizations for support.

In general, a paralegal should focus more on the use of conflict resolution methods like negotiation, conciliation, mediation and arbitration to resolve conflicts in communities rather than using the courts.

Example

A farmer is planning to evict ten families from his farm without a court order. A paralegal can help the families to approach the courts (using a lawyer) to get an urgent interdict to stop the evictions from taking place. But this only provides the families with temporary relief. It would probably be of more benefit to the families if they were to sit around a table with the farmer and negotiate a way of dealing with the problem which would benefit all the parties. While they are doing this they should be lobbying and putting pressure on the local government to provide land for the families to settle on because they don't have security of tenure rights on the farm. The paralegal can help them in all of these actions.

(See Checklist : Best practices for paralegal case-workers)

Paralegals in different sectors

Paralegals work in different sectors of society. These include:

• Community advice centres - they offer a basic free legal advice service to people who cannot afford a lawyer, they provide community education on the law and rights and referral service.
• Trade unions - Organisers, training officers and shop stewards need paralegal skills their work. They also need to know the basic principles of labour law and labour relations.
• Service organizations - Fieldworkers working in service organizations, NGO’s, CBO’s and lawyers' organisations need paralegal skills, for example, giving advice, monitoring abuses of rights, understanding and simplifying the law, and assisting with community education.
• Law firms - Paralegal workers in law firms take statements, refer people to other organisations if necessary and give legal advice.
• Inside the legal system - Lay assessors are paralegals who participate in the criminal courts by helping magistrates reach fair decisions in criminal cases. Lay assessors should have basic knowledge of the law and court procedures.
• Community Development Workers (CDWs) - CDWs are based in Municipal offices. Their role is to provide a link between municipal councils and communities. They need to have certain skills including those for effective conflict resolution and they need a sound working knowledge of broad issues such as social development and welfare, disaster management, the responsibilities of local councils to communities and how to make local government accountable.

The role of paralegals

These are some of the things that paralegals can do:

• give legal and general advice to people on the law and their rights
• write or distribute pamphlets, booklets and other resources to help educate people
• refer people to social and health services, and other helpful organizations
• refer people to lawyers where it is clear a lawyer is necessary
• help prepare people for formal legal procedures, such as what to expect in a court case
• assist and prepare people to take labour problems to the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA)
• run workshops to educate people about their rights
• work as a link between a community and lawyers, and help with things like taking statements, interpreting and following up cases
• assist in making contact with the press and in publicising events and problems in a community
• help sort out problems in a community, and problems with the authorities through negotiation and mediation
• help in the building and developing of community organisations
• build contacts with other paralegals, resources and organisations regionally and nationally

(See Checklist: Best Practices for Paralegal Case-Workers.)

Paralegals play an important role in the legal process because many people cannot afford lawyers, people sometimes find it intimidating going to a lawyer and there are usually few sympathetic lawyers operating in rural areas.

Formal recognition of paralegals in the legal system

The public and the legal profession recognise that paralegals are important because they allow disadvantaged people to have access to justice. However, for many years paralegals were not formally recognized by the legal profession. There are a number of regulatory options being considered for paralegals, including an independent regulatory framework..