Legal Secretary Family
Career series with 2 positions across 2 levels
In New Jersey civil service, Legal Secretary names a 2-level progression covering 2 distinct titles.
Entry is typically through Legal Secretary 2, advancing through the ladder toward Legal Secretary 1. Pay across the family spans $46,727 to $73,902, around the 10th percentile of all civil service job families by top pay. State payroll records show 151 people across the family's titles, most concentrated at Office of the Public Defender.
Legal Secretary reports to supervising titles such as Secretary Assistant and Legal Assistant.
Positions in This Family
- LEGAL SECRETARY 2 (24831) $46,727 - $67,528/year
- LEGAL SECRETARY 1 (24832) $50,990 - $73,902/year
What the Legal Secretary family covers
Legal Secretary covers 2 title codes arranged into 2 levels of responsibility. Its titles are common jurisdiction, meaning the same classification is used at the state level and by local civil service employers alike.
Office support is where New Jersey's classification plan is at its most granular. Typing, transcription, stenography, records, reception and general clerical duties each became their own series, and each series then split into state and local versions, which is why the catalog holds so many near-identical clerical codes. For applicants this granularity is mostly good news: it means a lot of separate eligible lists, most of them asking for a high school diploma and no experience, and it makes clerical work the most common way people enter the system and then transfer sideways.
The ladder, ordered by pay
The Legal Secretary rungs, listed from the best paid down. Note that the numbers in these titles do not run in pay order. In this family a lower number sits higher on the ladder, which is a New Jersey convention that catches people out when they read a title list top to bottom.
- Legal Secretary 1 — $50,990 to $73,902 (2 years of experience)
- Legal Secretary 2 — $46,727 to $67,528 (1 year of experience)
The distance from the bottom of Legal Secretary 2 to the top of Legal Secretary 1 is $27,175, an increase of about 58% over the entry minimum.
What each title does
Reading the definitions side by side is the quickest way to see what changes as you move through the family.
- Legal Secretary 2: Under supervision of an attorney or other supervisory official in a state department or agency, or local government jurisdiction, transcribes or types legal dictation…
- Legal Secretary 1: Under direction of an attorney or other supervisory official in a state department or agency, or local government jurisdiction, transcribes or types dictation…
Requirements across the family
None of the specifications in this family names a degree requirement, which places these titles among the New Jersey positions open to applicants without formal higher education. Stated experience runs from 1 year at the lowest rung to 2 at the highest, which is the main thing separating one level from the next.
On how the jobs are filled: 2 are competitive, filled from an eligible list after an open competitive or promotional examination.
Who actually employs these titles
151 people appear on the state payroll under 2 of these titles, at 5 agencies. Office of the Public Defender alone accounts for about 58% of them.
- Office of the Public Defender — 88 employees
- Law and Public Safety — 59 employees
- Division of Rate Counsel — 2 employees
- Human Services — 1 employee
- Transportation — 1 employee
Median actual pay varies across the family, from $55,196 for Legal Secretary 2 up to $71,403 for Legal Secretary 1. Those are medians of what people are really paid, not schedule minimums and maximums.
State payroll only, deduplicated by payroll title; local employers file separately, so a family with local codes looks smaller here than it is. How this is counted.
How the pay is set
Titles in this family are paid on the A-P-R-S salary schedule. See every step in that schedule. Bargaining is handled by CWA. Union contracts and rights are collected here.
Where these jobs exist
These are common jurisdiction titles, which is the most flexible position to be in as an applicant: the same classification is used by state departments and by local civil service employers, so an eligible list built in one place still describes work you can do in the other. What common jurisdiction means.
Related titles elsewhere in the plan
Other classifications built on the same terms as Legal Secretary. Worth checking if this family has no current opening.
- Legal Secretary (local jurisdiction)
- Legal Secretary (local jurisdiction)
- Executive Secretary (state jurisdiction)
- Administrative Secretary (local jurisdiction)
- Secretary of Agriculture (state jurisdiction)
- Administrative Secretary (local jurisdiction)
Common questions about Legal Secretary jobs
How many separate Legal Secretary classifications does New Jersey have?
The Legal Secretary family holds 2 title codes arranged across 2 levels. Each code is a separate classification with its own published specification, requirements and salary treatment.
How much is a Legal Secretary paid?
Published salary data for this family runs from $46,727 at the bottom of Legal Secretary 2 to $73,902 at the top of Legal Secretary 1. Those are schedule figures. Where the title appears on the state payroll, actual median pay is listed on the page above.
Is there a civil service test for Legal Secretary?
Yes for most of the family. 2 of the 2 titles are in the competitive division, which means appointment comes from an eligible list built by an open competitive or promotional examination.
What are the requirements to become a Legal Secretary?
No degree requirement is parsed from the specifications in this family, which puts these titles among the New Jersey civil service jobs reachable without formal higher education. Experience of 1 to 2 years is named where a requirement is stated.
Which agencies employ Legal Secretary staff?
State payroll records show 151 people in this family across 5 agencies, with Office of the Public Defender the largest at 88. Local government employers are not covered by that extract.
Is Legal Secretary 1 higher or lower than Legal Secretary 3?
In this family the lower number is the more senior title. New Jersey's level numbering does not run in pay order, and reading the titles by number alone will give you the ladder upside down. The list above is sorted by what each title actually pays.