Discourse Community: Criminal Law Paralegals

Paralegal assistant help assist lawyers, attorneys, and any other law firms. They do a mixture of duties which includes maintaining files, legal research, and manage documents. Paralegals work in a diversity of legal practice which can range from litigation and trial practice to tax, and real estate transactions,and estate planning. The employment of paralegal assistant is expected to grow from 2014 to 2024. Being a paralegal assistant is a good career because of career path, work will be diversified, and benefits.

The role a paralegal has in a law firm is a vital. These professionals are highly valued for the abilities they contribute in the area of knowing the law, legal research and how it applies to a client’s case. Furthermore, paralegals also as assist their Attorneys on a variety of tasks pertaining to a law related matters. Regardless, no matter how knowledgeable the paralegal may be; they are always required to work under the direct supervision of an attorney. There are very little exceptions for paralegals to work in the law field, unsupervised. Even in these exceptions, It is still possible for a professional paralegal, under the supervision of an attorney or not, to still commit UPL (California Legislative Information Business and Professions Code).

* Motions to Dismiss - These are the defense's response or answers to the plaintiffs complaint. The responses are typically filed as motions and are intended to dismiss the claims expressed in the complaint.

A criminal defense attorney is a lawyer that is specialized in the defense of those who are charged with criminal conduct. Defense attorneys deal with the surrounding issues of an arrest of their clients, and the substantive issues of a crime that he or she is charged. In the United States, each individual who is brought to trail is eligible for a defense attorney, according to the sixth amendment. If an individual cannot afford an attorney, one is a pointed by the courts; these individuals are called public defenders who are employed by the government. The duties of a defense attorney, is to advocate and advice. In order, for the defense attorney to work effectively, the defendant must supply all the facts and information surrounding the case. Moreover, the defendant is protected by attorney- client privilege. Thus, any exchange information concerning the case is private and protected under the law. The criminal defense attorney role is to assist the courts with the truth-seeking process by presentation an oral argument in favor of defendant innocence. The average case calls to “advocate with courage and devotion and to render effective, quality representation” (Flower, Page 650, paragraph one). The misconceptions of a defense attorney are that she or he performs duties begrudgingly whether or not the attorney believes in the innocents of the client. The writer considers the availability of an exchange of

John Swales (1990), professor of linguistics, defines a discourse community as an exclusive group of people brought together by a common goal. According to John Swales (1990), every discourse community has six characteristics that makes them a discourse community. Overall the group must have a shared goal, in which they communicate with each other through different genres and lexis they have developed; genres are different types of communication that the group employ and lexis is the specialized language utilized by that particular discourse community. They also tend to have a hierarchy within the group and require individual group members to truly participate to be counted as a part of the discourse community. (p. 471-73)

A legal adviser in the court gives advice on the law and makes sure the magistrates follow the right procedures.

Growing up I didn’t socialize with people so it was hard for me to join a discourse community. But we I was around the age of fifteen I joined the basketball team, and ever since then it became my discourse community. In this paper, I’m going to explain how the team was a discourse community to me. And what roles we did to become a discourse community. Many people say basketball is all about winning games. But its more than that, I’ve learned many concepts in the game of basketball I’m going demonstrate what made my basketball team a discourse community.

To understand what a paralegal does we must first understand what the job of a lawyer entails. Black’s Law Dictionary defines a lawyer as “a person learned in the law; as an attorney,

In stating so, Flynn argues that while some in the legal field think that paralegals are supervised and work under an attorney, therefore do not need to be licensed or certified. Others believe paralegals handle intricate legal matters, therefore should be licensed and certified. This statement from Flynn reinforces my belief that paralegals are essential to the effectiveness of a law firm and leads into my standing that licensing should be in place to ensure education, knowledge and adherence, which in turn will make a paralegal more valuable. Licensing of the paralegal profession and the requirements of experience and education that come with it; would dispel the long time misunderstanding of position titles among law office staff, attorneys and the public.

Legal consciousness helps us differentiate the gap between the law on he book and the law in action (Susan S. Silbey, page 1). Ewick & Silbey describe consciousness as engaging in the social movement and predominance. (Susan S. Silbey, page 333). “Ewick and Silbey describe as before, with, and against the law, are described asa the cultural tool- kit from which popular understandings of legality are constructed” (Susan S. Silbey, page 349). Ewick and Silbey say that belonging into one of the three categories but rather shifting between the three categories over time, space and under certain

Prosecuting those who commit crimes is very important to the overall wellbeing of society and the citizens within society. Prosecuting and convicting criminals not only prevents them from committing another crime, it also serves as a deterrent to others that may be considering breaking the law. Many courts make up the judicial branch and these courts are responsible for applying laws made by the government. The courts are made up of courtroom workgroups that are the basis of the courts proceedings.

The legal profession has been around for a long time, as it is one of the oldest information professions . The service it provides is essential, as it

The lawyer is the lead in the legal team and has passed the bar examination and have a license to practice law in their respective state(s). In larger firms, the lawyers can be assigned as partners and associates. The partner has actual ownership in the firm whereas the associate are usually on salary as an employee, not being an owner in the firm. The supervising attorney in a large firm is responsible for the actions and work of the lawyers under him/her. The paralegal is responsible for the litigation process. Some of the responsibilities of the paralegal are preparing casework, investigations, preparing briefings, conducting

Paralegals and Legal Assistants do various tasks to support a lawyer or attorney including organizing files, conducting legal research, and drafting numerous types of documentation in preparation for legal action to take place. Legal actions that take place are court hearings, trials, and corporate meetings.

After conducting research on this career, I found paralegals have many responsibilities in the legal world. Many of them I was unaware of until this research. Paralegals