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N.C. State Bar Approves Guidelines for Use of Paralegals

By Lynne DeVenny

The North Carolina State Bar has published its Guidelines for the Use of Paralegals (http://www.nccertifiedparalegal.gov/guidelines.asp), approved July 23, 2010. They include the statement, "These guidelines are intended to facilitate the proper use of paralegals in a law firm by clarifying a lawyer?s professional responsibilities when supervising a paralegal."

The Guidelines are an extraordinarily useful and direct set of provisions for both lawyers and paralegals, well worth a close read by legal professionals across the country. In addition to information about national certification programs and educational programs, North Carolina's voluntary associations for paralegals are listed.

Guideline number 8 is particularly worth emphasizing, due to the number of trust account abuse cases publicized across the country:

8. A Lawyer may DELEGATE MANAGEMENT OF A TRUST ACCOUNT TO A paralegal OR OTHER NONLAWYER EMPLOYEE BUT THE LAWYER REMAINS PROFESSIONALLY RESPONSIBLE FOR the safe keeping of the funds deposited in the account and for compliance with the recordkeeping and accountings required by the Rules of professional conduct.

Kudos to the N.C. State Bar for their work on these Guidelines.

Source: North Carolina State Bar Board of Paralegal Certification

Full post as published by Practical Paralegalism on August 26, 2010 (boomark / email).