[ksims]

I have a felony charge for credit card abuse and I want to go to school for paralegal do you think I could get a job I am going to Virginia college online and their telling me that I couldn't get a job but it might me that they have different laws

[JudyKayTee]

Depends on whether you are going to work in a State which licenses Paralegals/Legal Assistants. If so I cannot imagine that you will be given a License.

I'm sure it happens, but I have never seen a single Paralegal hired based on an on-line education. In my area it's 4 years, a Bachelors Degree.

If the College tells you you can't get a job, why don't you believe them?

[twinkiedooter]

You can try to get a job but you will have to forego any licensing. You may endup a legal secretary or legal assistant though. And a license is not necessary for a legal assistant BUT the employer may do a background check on you prior to hiring you so that may preclude your being hired even as a legal assistant.

There are not too many jobs out there for paralegals unless you are in a big city. Small towns do not have such an animal anymore. They just hire legal secretaries or legal assistants and those jobs are few and far between these days as most attorneys like to compose their own motions, etc themselves and only need an assistant to finish the paperwork, get a hearing or scheduling meetings with clients, etc. The law is fascinating, I'll admit, and I've been a paralegal in Florida for years and when I moved to Ohio to a small town I was left high and dry and had to take a job as a legal assistant. And then when that attorney retired I was out of a job and did any and anything to keep employed including doing customer service and office manager.

Also, most attorneys want their employees to be notaries andyou having a felony will definitely preclude you from being a felon.

You may want to look into getting the felony expunged but that can take about 10 years of felony free living and a trip to the courtroom for the judge to decide to have it expunged or not. Worth the money to hire an attorney. Also, even if the paperwork is submitted to the judge, the judge is not in a big hurry to grant the expungement either, so the process can take months to accomplish even after the hearing is held. This is not a do it yourself item either.