Legal Services Assistant Family
Career series with 2 positions across 2 levels
Legal Services Assistant is a career-ladder family in New Jersey civil service, with 2 titles spanning 2 levels.
Entry is typically through Legal Services Assistant 2, advancing through the ladder toward Legal Services Assistant 1. Pay across the family spans $50,990 to $84,763, around the 19th percentile of all civil service job families by top pay.
Legal Services Assistant commonly advances into Legal Assistant and Program Assistant Administrative Services.
Positions in This Family
- LEGAL SERVICES ASSISTANT 2 (72741) $50,990 - $73,902/year
- LEGAL SERVICES ASSISTANT 1 (72743) $58,222 - $84,763/year
What the Legal Services Assistant family covers
Legal Services Assistant covers 2 title codes arranged into 2 levels of responsibility. Every title in it is a state title, so the employer is a state department, commission or authority rather than a county or municipality.
Legal titles in New Jersey split into two groups that look similar and are not. Deputy attorneys general, public defenders and public advocates are unclassified: they are appointed, not examined, and their pay is negotiated inside a schedule rather than earned by stepping through it. Hearing officers, appeals examiners and paralegal support titles are ordinary classified positions filled the usual way. Both groups cluster in Law and Public Safety, the Office of Administrative Law and the agencies that run their own hearings, so the work is closer to administrative adjudication than to courtroom practice.
The ladder, ordered by pay
The Legal Services Assistant 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 Services Assistant 1 — $58,222 to $84,763 (an associate's degree)
- Legal Services Assistant 2 — $50,990 to $73,902 (an associate's degree)
The distance from the bottom of Legal Services Assistant 2 to the top of Legal Services Assistant 1 is $33,773, an increase of about 66% 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 Services Assistant 2: Under direction of an institutional Supervisor of Educational Programs, Department of Corrections, assists in the monitoring and training of institutional…
- Legal Services Assistant 1: Under direction of an institutional Supervisor of Educational Programs, Department of Corrections, has the responsibility for the monitoring and training of…
Requirements across the family
Across the 2 titles we have parsed, the education requirements read as an associate's degree on 2 of them. On how the jobs are filled: 2 are competitive, filled from an eligible list after an open competitive or promotional examination.
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 state titles, hired by New Jersey departments, commissions and boards through the Civil Service Commission's announcement and eligible list process rather than by an ordinary job posting. How state hiring works, and which agencies employ what.
Related titles elsewhere in the plan
Other classifications built on the same terms as Legal Services Assistant. Worth checking if this family has no current opening.
- Legal Services Coordinator ($76,287 to $111,856, state jurisdiction)
- Supervisor of Legal Secretarial Services ($55,691 to $81,008, state jurisdiction) — in the Supervisor family
- Legal Analyst (local jurisdiction)
- Legal Liaison (state jurisdiction)
- Legal Liaison (state jurisdiction)
- Legal Assistant (local jurisdiction)
Common questions about Legal Services Assistant jobs
How many Legal Services Assistant titles are there in New Jersey civil service?
The Legal Services Assistant family holds 2 title codes arranged across 2 levels. Each code is a separate classification with its own published specification, requirements and salary treatment.
What does a Legal Services Assistant earn in New Jersey?
Published salary data for this family runs from $50,990 at the bottom of Legal Services Assistant 2 to $84,763 at the top of Legal Services Assistant 1. Those are schedule figures. Where the title appears on the state payroll, actual median pay is listed on the page above.
Do you need to take an exam to become a Legal Services Assistant?
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 qualifications does a Legal Services Assistant need?
The most common education requirement in this family is an associate's degree, named on 2 of the 2 titles. Read the individual specification for the exact wording, including any experience substitution.
Is Legal Services Assistant 1 higher or lower than Legal Services Assistant 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.