LEGAL SERVICES ASSISTANT 1
Career Family: LEGAL SERVICES ASSISTANT
Legal Services Assistant 1 sits in the competitive class of New Jersey's state civil service, so reaching it runs through testing and an eligible list instead of a straight hire.
This is the senior rung of the Legal Services Assistant series, the level you reach after Legal Services Assistant 2. It asks for an associate's degree. Pay on the FY2026 schedule runs $56,253 to $81,897.
How to get hired
- Watch for an open-competitive announcement for Legal Services Assistant 1 on the NJ Civil Service Commission jobs portal. Announcements run for a fixed filing window.
- Apply during that window and sit the examination. Depending on the title, that can be a written test, a rating of your training and experience, or a mix of the two.
- Passing scores go onto a ranked eligible list. Veterans get preference points added on top of their score.
- When an agency has a vacancy it must appoint from the top of that list under the "Rule of Three." Many competitive jobs are first filled provisionally while the list is being built.
Read the official specification at NJ Civil Service Commission.
Pay ladder: Legal Services Assistant series
- Legal Services Assistant 2 — $49,266 – $71,403
- Legal Services Assistant 1 — $56,253 – $81,897 (this title)
Its top salary lands around the 22nd percentile of all NJ civil service titles that publish a range.
Rungs are ordered by FY2026 pay. NJ level numbers are not always sequential, so ordering follows salary rather than the title number.
Official job specification
The text below is the official specification published by the New Jersey Civil Service Commission. The plain-language summary and analysis above are derived from it by NJ Civil Service Navigator.
Definition
Under direction of an institutional Supervisor of Educational Programs, Department of Corrections, has the responsibility for the monitoring and training of institutional paralegals, maintenance of institutional law library collections, and cataloging legal materials, and documents; does other related duties.
Examples of work
- Conducts training seminars for paralegals at the institutional level.
- Aids institutional personnel in developing rules and regulations designed to provide inmates with legal materials and access to the courts.
- Makes recommendations to the institutional Supervisor of Education where required to adequately provide inmate population with access to the courts.
- Reviews, updates, and replaces volumes in institutional law library collections on a periodic basis, and, as required by changes in law and legal procedures, assists inmates at the institutional level to gain access to the courts.
- Provides technical assistance, to institutional staff in matters related to paralegal training, inmate access to the courts, conduct to paralegal programs, and institution law libraries.
- Organizes assigned work and develops effective work methods.
- Keeps current of major changes in the law and provides current information to inmates and staff.
- Prepares correspondence and reports.
- Maintains records and files.
- Will be required to learn to utilize various types of electronic and/or manual recording and information systems used by the agency, office, or related units.
Education
Thirty (30) semester credit hours from an accredited college or university in a legal or paralegal training course or completion of thirty (30) semester credit hours leading to an Associate degree in Applied Science (AAS) in Legal Research.
Experience
Three (3) years experience in legal research, maintenance of legal collections, and cataloging legal materials and documents.
License
Appointee will be required to possess a driver's license valid in New Jersey only if the operation of a vehicle, rather than employee mobility, is necessary to perform the essential duties of the position.
Knowledge, skills and abilities
- Knowledge of Department functions and programs after a period of training.
- Knowledge of law and the legal process.
- Knowledge of the New Jersey court systems and of federal court systems and their processes and procedures after a period of training.
- Knowledge of legal documents, uses, and methods of processing them in the state and federal court systems.
- Knowledge of methods and means for conducting legal research, including facility in the use of court decisions, precedent setting opinions, legal citations, and other legal material.
- Knowledge of law library collections, legal bibliography, annotation and other requisite techniques for law library use and maintenance.
- Ability to present training programs.
- Ability to recognize the relationship between paralegal programs, and other functions, programs and responsibilities of the institution.
- Ability to work effectively with inmates and institutional staff in the conduct of paralegal training and programs.
- Ability to prepare correspondence.
- Ability to maintain records, documents, and files that maintain institutional compliance with provisions of the Department of Corrections.
- Ability to prepare reports.
- Ability to learn and utilize various types of electronic and/or manual recording and information systems used by the agency, office, or related units.
- Ability to read, write, speak, understand, or communicate in English sufficiently to perform the duties of this position. American Sign Language or Braille may also be considered as acceptable forms of communication.
- Persons with mental or physical disabilities are eligible as long as they can perform the essential functions of the job after reasonable accommodation is made to their known limitations. If the accommodation cannot be made because it would cause the employer undue hardship, such persons may not be eligible.
- Code: 19/A18- MCK 10/5/00
Note
The examples of work for this title are for illustrative purposes only. A particular position using this title may not perform all duties listed in this job specification. Conversely, all duties performed on the job may not be listed.