A previous question asked, "What is a Legal Analyst? And this was the answer that was chosen as best...and it did seem to be the best when looking at the other answers:
"It's something which only exists in North America. It's a person who, under general supervision, provides paralegal and legal analytical support work including legal research and drafting of routine and complex legal documents. Such a person must have legal training and be able to make sound recommendations."
2007-05-07 07:12:03 · 4 answers · asked by What, what, what?? 6 in Politics & Government ➔ Law & Ethics
Are they generally lawyers, or are they legal assistants?
2007-05-07 07:12:43 · update #1
There's no generally-accepted meaning for "legal analyst." There is a creature known in New York as a legal consultant, who advises on the laws of another country, and such a person is not a lawyer under US law, though they would be lawyers in that other country.
As far as paralegals and their permitted activities, there are four acts that constitute the practice of law per se, which means that you would be breaking the law if you did any of those things, even under a lawyer's supervision:
1. Giving legal advice.
2. Holding yourself out as a lawyer, attorney or counselor at law.
3. Appearing in open court and representing a client before the bar.
4. Receiving a fee for services related to legal advice, preparation of legal documents, or for appearing in court and filing papers there, except that the purely ministerial act of filing papers prepared by an attorney is not, in and of itself, practising law,
In most jurisdictions, the unauthorized practice f law (i.e., doing any of those 4 things without having a valid license to practice law) is a crime. In some, it is (or can be) a felony.
2007-05-07 07:23:30 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
Most you are talking about are lawyers, and many are clerks to people like the US Supreme Court justices. Most Clerk of Courts are lawyers!
There are people who are experts in criminal law who are not lawyers. There are people who are experts in Constitutional law and they are not lawyers!
You don't have to be a lawyer to be an expert in law. You do have to be one to practice it in court!
Drafting legal documents often are done by para-legals, as is a lot of work!
There is still one state where you can apprentice and become a lawyer without going to law school and that is Vermont!
2007-05-07 07:20:41 · answer #2 · answered by cantcu 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
There are people who are political scientists who are legal analysts. I know some political scientists who have Ph. D.'s and teach at prestigious colleges who know more about the Supreme Court than most lawyers.
Oh, yes, there are also people who are "Jury Consultants" like JoEllan Dimetrius,Ph. D., a sociologist, who we got to know about through the O J. Simpson Trial, and Judith Platania, Ph. D., a psychologist, who worked on the Timothy McVey trial.
2007-05-07 07:54:43 · answer #3 · answered by Mark 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Hi Friend,
Hiring a lawyer for minor legal problems can be expensive, but there are websites like LawGuru, FindLaw and other places where you can get free legal advice. I found this website useful - http://www.uelp.org/freelegal.html
2007-05-13 19:42:21 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋