[quote=bearishgurl][quote=equalizer] . . . So I call them morons and you mock their language skills. Yeah, that is really going to stop the outsourcing. . . [/quote]
Working in the law in the United States requires *superior* English skills. Superior skills when transcribing from tape (from different American dialects and from people who may be in distress while speaking), superior skills when interviewing clients, superior skills when studying (and “shepardizing”) relevant case law to a given problem, superior skills when preparing moving papers, interrogatories, responses, memoranda, correspondence, etc and SUPERIOR ADVANCED knowledge of word-processing programs (“cold” and not have to look up functions as there is no time for that). As a paralegal, you are preparing documents which will be read by a US judge (or panel of judges).
Sorry, but Indian paralegals (located in India) not only is logistically impossible, but whatever “English” they may have learned to be nice and helpful in an Indian “call-center” used by US companies won’t fly in this area.
Yes, there are MANY Indian attorneys in the US. HOWEVER, they were educated here and live and work here. And even most of THEM have language deficiencies. That’s why they native English-speaking paralegals.
Having cleaned up a LOT of legal work originally prepared by non-native English speakers, I know what I am talking about here.[/quote]
BG, with all due respect, most Americans do not have “superior” English skills relative to a some of the foreigners…For one thing, grammar is seldomly taught rigorously in U.S. schools these days, and second the reason why the entire legal system exists is because the majority of Americans lack the comprehension and English skills that are necessary to understand those pesky legal documents an attorney drafts up. Heavens forbid, if they actually wrote things in simple terms that average J6P could understand, they wouldn’t need to be charging $350+/hr for their words or $150/hr for a paralegal to photocopy a document. On the other hand, you have a foreign body of relatively well college educated foreigners that has taken English, gone through training,etc, I wouldn’t doubt their comprehension and ability to write to be better than J6p….
And let’s face it, while there are some good paralegals, most of them are not lawyer “like” in any way….. I was dealing with my attorney for a few months, and I have to say her paralegal was a complete moron….I ended up correcting her English and sending the documents back to her for her to “fix” on the final document…Of course, her screwups meant my attorney charged me $150/hr to fix. Nice huh? And no, I guarantee that paralegal was not “foreign” in any way..
