Ethical Dilemmas In The Paralegal Field

Amy Clark
Natasha Summers
Critical Thinking
March 19, 2016
Step 1: The current issue I chose in my core program, which is Paralegal Studies, is
“Ethical Dilemmas in the Paralegal Field.” I chose this issue because ethics is one of the most important aspects of being a paralegal. The decisions you make in your own ethical behavior can affect you long before you ever become a paralegal. The most common ethical dilemmas a paralegal is faced with are : unauthorized practice of law, maintaining confidentiality, supervising attorney reviewing the paralegal’s work, roles of technology, and conflicts of interest. I will elaborate on those five dilemmas a little later in our discussion.
Step 2: The main groups of people affected by ethical dilemmas

Step 4: Bias can affect how you decide to comply with an ethical dilemma. The attorney, paralegal, or legal secretary can be faced with personal values such as income, personal feelings, or social media that affect how they make an ethical decision. Personal feelings can cause them to be prejudiced or emotional in their personal opinions. For example, if an attorney dishonest, the paralegal may not doing anything because they have no other income coming in and if they get fired, they have no job and nothing to help with rent. They may also go with the attorney’s decision because everyone else in the firm is going along with it. It's harder to stand up for what’s right when everyone is doing wrong. Social media can affect decisions with ethics because you may base your decision on what you read and what you read could be very wrong.
Now to discuss those five pesky ethical dilemmas a little further for you. Unauthorized

Everything a paralegal does must be reviewed by a supervising attorney.
Even if your attorney knows you’re doing good work and trusts you to put his signature on things, please still have someone review your work. It's best to always be accurate. Role of technologyEmail is not the best when it comes to meeting a client. You never know who you are talking to so it is best to always meet with a new client face to face. Technology is changing so much and you just have a better chance of making a right ethical decision when you meet your client in person. Conflicts of InterestYou have to check to see if there are any conflicts of interest with your client. This could be your attorney is already representing a relative of a potential client or if the spouse of someone wanting a divorce has already called talking to your attorney. If any are, you should bring it to your attorney’s attention right away. If you don't, you take the chance of the opposing side bring up the conflict of interest in Court and your attorney losing the case. This could come back to bite you in the end and you may lose your job.
The most essential thing to remember is to follow your attorney’s rules and make the best ethical decision because doing what’s right in the end is the