Paralegal Education: A Comparative Analysis

This short article is a comparative analysis of paralegal education in United States and Canada. It also uses the UK as a reference point with regards to professional degrees.

The trend in paralegal education has been to adopt expensive paralegal degree programs, yet there is no empirical evidence showing that a paralegal will perform more competently than a paralegal with just a certificate; or a combination of a certificate and experience.

By adopting expensive programs it eliminates low income people, minorities, single mothers, disabled veterans and handicapped people from pursuing a paralegal education, since they can't afford to pay expensive tuitions. It also forces students to take on school loans and shoulder huge debt loads in a distressed economy.

This paper presents reasonable educational alternatives on the basis of its findings.