It has always been lawyers, not consumers, who set professional entrance provisions, graded bar exams, and regulated treatment of clients. In Nashville, Tennessee, two paralegals set up the Tennessee Paralegal Help Center in 1991 to help people fill out and file routine legal matters such as uncontested divorces, simple bankruptcies, name changes, and wills. It takes an hour to prepare a no-frills, uncontested divorce. That's not the case with an attorney. In California, paralegal Mershan Shaddy was sentenced to 49 days in jail for the unauthorized practice of law.
Paralegals charge that . . .
Licensing restrictions are often draconian on occupations that have a dubious reputation.