Describing the Paralegal Scope of Practice with Purpose

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Doing the kind of work that I do, I say the words “paralegal scope of practice” all the time. Because they’re involved in paralegal education in some capacity, lots of people I interact with know this phrase has something to do with up to $25,000 and summary conviction offences … small claims court and tribunals. (Read the technical details here.) If you’re used to repeating these words mindlessly (psst … I’m guilty of this sloppy practice too), please reconsider the way you think about how paralegals fit into the business of providing legal services in Ontario.

It’s Really Hard to Understand the Legal System

Imagine you were blindsided by a legal dispute. First, you would probably call a lawyer, but unless you’re wealthy (or can get someone else to foot the bill) you might be out of luck. You could turn to Google to research your next steps if you knew what to search for, but reading legalese just makes you feel anxious and maybe stupid. Do you even know that some really important deadlines exist? Would you be surprised that no one in the legal system feels sorry for you because you didn’t read a notice carefully? If only you could afford to “retain” (that’s legalese for hire) a lawyer to tackle the legal system on your behalf, you might have a chance of sleeping at night.

Paralegals Are a Rational Alternative to Lawyers

Paralegals are well suited to handle many aspects of the limited range of legal problems that ordinary people face. Things like car accidents and sour business deals are way more common than disputes centred on oil spills and the intricacies of complex financial instruments. Everyday legal problems affect Canadians regardless of their affluence, so why should only the rich be able to handle them ­­punctiliously? It makes good sense for paralegals to serve the large part of the market that cannot afford pricey legal advice and representation, yet it makes no sense to leave these potential clients on their own when we know how impossibly complex the legal system is in the first place.

Rethinking the Permitted Scope of Practice for Paralegals in Ontario

Today paralegals can properly handle some matters, so why shouldn’t they be able to handle others in the future? If we stop repeating boring summations like “up to $25,000 and summary conviction offences … small claims court and tribunals” when we discuss the types of legal services paralegals provide in Ontario, then we may be able to come up with different language to describe why some (and not other) work is the legitimate domain of paralegal practice. From there, perhaps we could identify a principled way of extending the scope of paralegal practice into areas like family law that are presently restricted. As long as we’re truly committed to solving the problem of access to justice, we must not sideline paralegals and the valuable skills they have to offer.

Photo by James Jordan (CC BY-ND)