Paralegals are professionals who assist or support lawyers in their work (Westwood College). Supporting qualified lawyers includes a variety of tasks. When an attorney's case comes to court, paralegals prepare motions and briefs, as well as organize and catalog relevant court documents (Westwood College). Paralegals also locate and interview witnesses; conduct investigations; conduct legal research; and summarize depositions, interrogations and testimonies (National Association of Legal Assistants). Additionally, Business and Professions Code section 6450(a) states that “The duties performed by a paralegal include, but are not limited to, case planning, development, and management; legal research; interview customers; fact gathering and information retrieval; drafting and analysis of legal documents; collect, compile and use technical information to make an independent decision and make recommendations to the supervising attorney; and represent clients before a state or federal administrative agency if such representation is permitted by statute, court rule, or administrative rule or regulation" (Section 6450(a) of the Business and Professions Code). According the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in California, the estimated average hourly salary for a paralegal is $24.15 and the estimated average annual salary is $50,220 (Bureau of Labor Statistics The benefits for paralegals usually include vacation, vacation, sick leave, medical, dental, life insurance, and retirement plans. Many law firms pay bonuses based on seniority or merit or a combination of both (State Employment Development Department). California). Salaries for self-employed paralegals depend on the type of assignments completed and not on ... half of the document ...... f Job Statistics). When less work is delegated to paralegals, a company may downsize and fire some paralegals or hire new paralegals until workload increases (Bureau of Labor Statistics). The fact that interested me most about the paralegal profession is that paralegals are not limited to working in a law firm. There are a number of other career opportunities for paralegals. Some opportunities are in law-related fields and other opportunities are in non-legal fields; however, the opportunities involve jobs where a paralegal background provides useful training. Paralegal skills are intertwined with many other professions. Also, I think paralegals are underpaid because they have a lot of duties, responsibilities and pressures. Paralegals are the right-hand men of lawyers, and lawyers rely heavily on paralegals' many skills.