NJ Civil Service Navigator

Paralegal Technician Family

Career series with 2 positions across 2 levels

In New Jersey civil service, Paralegal Technician names a 2-level progression covering 2 distinct titles.

Entry is typically through Paralegal Technician 1, advancing through the ladder toward Paralegal Technician 2. Pay across the family spans $55,691 to $92,953, around the 23rd percentile of all civil service job families by top pay. State payroll records show 141 people across the family's titles, most concentrated at Children and Families.

Paralegal Technician commonly advances into Training Technician and Drafting Technician / Clerk.

2
Positions
2
Career Levels
Salary Range: $55,691 - $92,953/year

Positions in This Family

What the Paralegal Technician family covers

New Jersey classifies Paralegal Technician as a 2-level series holding 2 separate title codes. The family straddles jurisdictions: 1 state and 1 both state and local, so parts of it are hired by state departments and parts by local civil service employers.

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

Sorted by pay instead of by title number, the Paralegal Technician family stacks up as follows. Here the numbering happens to agree with the pay order, which is not guaranteed elsewhere in New Jersey's plan.

The distance from the bottom of Paralegal Technician 1 to the top of Paralegal Technician 2 is $37,263, an increase of about 67% over the entry minimum.

What each title does

The specifications themselves are the clearest guide to what separates these titles. Here is how each one opens.

  • Paralegal Technician 1: Under the limited supervision of a supervisory official, researches laws, rules, and regulations, investigates facts, and prepares documents for use in briefs…
  • Paralegal Technician 2: Under the direction of an attorney or other supervisory official, supervises paralegal staff and personally performs the more complex work involved in the research…

Getting in: the stated requirements

Across the 2 titles we have parsed, the education requirements read as an associate's degree on 2 of them. Stated experience runs from 2 years at the lowest rung to 3 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

141 people appear on the state payroll under 2 of these titles, at 8 agencies. Children and Families alone accounts for about 82% of them.

  • Children and Families — 115 employees
  • Law and Public Safety — 10 employees
  • Corrections — 6 employees
  • Community Affairs — 4 employees
  • Office of Administrative Law — 2 employees
  • Division of Rate Counsel — 2 employees

Those are the 6 largest of 8 agencies employing this family.

Median actual pay varies across the family, from $70,930 for Paralegal Technician 1 up to $84,150 for Paralegal Technician 2. 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

Because the family mixes jurisdictions, the answer to "who hires this" depends on the specific code. State codes run through the Civil Service Commission's announcement and eligible list process; local codes are hired by the counties, municipalities and authorities that adopted civil service under Title 11A. Check an employer's status before assuming a title is available where you live.

Related titles elsewhere in the plan

Nearby in the plan, ranked by how distinctive the shared terms are rather than by how many words happen to match.

Common questions about Paralegal Technician jobs

How many separate Paralegal Technician classifications does New Jersey have?

The Paralegal Technician 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 Paralegal Technician paid?

Published salary data for this family runs from $55,691 at the bottom of Paralegal Technician 1 to $92,953 at the top of Paralegal Technician 2. 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 Paralegal Technician?

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 Paralegal Technician?

The most common education requirement in this family is an associate's degree, named on 2 of the 2 titles. Stated experience ranges from 2 to 3 years depending on the rung. Read the individual specification for the exact wording, including any experience substitution.

Which agencies employ Paralegal Technician staff?

State payroll records show 141 people in this family across 8 agencies, with Children and Families the largest at 115. Local government employers are not covered by that extract.