Accredited Legal Secretary is one of three types of the paralegal certifications given by the NALP (National Association for Legal Professionals). It is the most basic certification that is given after passing a four-hour examination.

If you pass all three parts of the ALS exam you will receive a certificate that is valid for five years. The certification can be extended by one year, based on continuing education.

The ALS exam is a three-tiered test, covering:

1. Written Communications
2. Office Procedures and Legal Knowledge
3. Ethics, Human Relations, and Judgment

To be eligible for the test

To sit for the ALS exam you must meet one of the following requirements:
• One year of office experience. No need for special experience in the legal or paralegal field; general experience is fine.
• Graduated from an NALS training course.
• Graduate from a legal or business course.

As you can see, the requirements are not high. That is because this exam is the most basic one. It will teach you legal ethics codes and what your employers will expect from you when you start working in a law office. In addition, you will learn basic accounting so you will be able to deal with accounting-related and basic business documents.

What happens if I don’t pass?

You must pass all three parts of the exam. In case you don’t pass a specific part of the ALS exam, you can retake this part again in order to obtain a “pass” grade.

It is important to know that in case of re-examination, you will be asked to pay the full price of the exam, even if you do not do all three parts. Also, if you fail in more than one part, you will need to do all these parts together, on the same day. There is no “splitting” option in this test.

Dates and Costs

The ALS exam is always on the first Saturday of the month. You can sit for the exam in one of the following months: March, June, September, December.

The ALS exam is not expensive at all. You will be asked to say goodbye to only 100$ (or 50$-75$ if you are their student).

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 16th, 2011 at 8:10 am and is filed under Getting the certification. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.