NFPA Response to New Jersey Supreme Court Sally Andress, RP Paralegal Outsourcing 505 Blueberry Hill Rd. Both AzAPP and those individual sustaining members have asked NFPA to provide information on the paralegal profession that we feel would assist your committee in reaching its stated goal. Known as the leader in the paralegal profession, NFPA is a non-profit organization representing over 17,000 paralegals through our 57 member associations nationwide. The practice of law is a business and the ever increasing need for high quality legal services has made it necessary for attorneys to find new, innovative ways to meet these needs and continue to maintain the integrity of the profession while maintaining a profitable law practice.
Paralegals are an integral part of the legal services team.
Their proper utilization in an expanded role performing substantive legal work for which an attorney is ultimately responsible would serve to increase access to justice allowing attorneys to provide high quality, cost effective legal services so in demand in every area of the country. Added benefits include the ability for lawyers to maintain and, in fact, increase their profits by working on the more complex issues of law while permitting paralegals to perform other substantive tasks to complete the strategy of a legal matter. Further, this presents an opportunity to change the public's current perception of the legal profession. The medical profession, when faced with a similar crisis occasioned by the insurance companies reduction in fee reimbursement, expanded the medical team to include physician's assistants. As the needs of patients grew and insurance company reimbursement mandated the fees that could be charged, the role of the physician's assistants grew.