Paralegal Requirements in South Carolina: Education, Certification and State Rules

Our research found no South Carolina paralegal license.

What the state has instead is a voluntary certification: the Supreme Court of South Carolina created it through Rule 429 of the South Carolina Appellate Court Rules (SCACR), adopted November 12, 2015, and gave it to the South Carolina Board of Paralegal Certification to run.

Certification is not required to work as a paralegal in South Carolina, but the state's certified-paralegal titles are reserved — we walk through that title rule below.

A voluntary credential statewide still tells you nothing about a single employer: a firm can prefer or require certification in its own postings, so read each listing for what it asks.

Our research found no state education requirement for paralegals in South Carolina — certification is not required to work, so expectations come from each employer's posting.

The one place a state education standard could sit — the SC Certified Paralegal eligibility criteria under Rule 429 — stayed outside the pages we read; ask the Board.

The closest documented benchmark is NALA's eligibility ladder for its Certified Paralegal: Category 1 accepts an ABA-approved paralegal program, an associate degree program, a post-baccalaureate paralegal certificate program, a bachelor's in paralegal studies, or a paralegal program of at least 60 semester hours with at least 15 in substantive legal courses.

Category 2 takes a bachelor's in any field plus one year of paralegal experience or at least 15 semester hours of substantive paralegal courses; Category 3, a high school diploma plus five years of paralegal experience and at least 20 hours of substantive CLE within the two years before applying, plus an attorney or employer attestation.

These are NALA's criteria, not a reading of the state's job market — we surveyed no South Carolina postings.

ABA approval is something a paralegal education program chooses to seek, and it approves programs, not individual paralegals.

The state credential is the South Carolina Certified Paralegal — SCCP — created by the Supreme Court under Rule 429, SCACR and administered by the South Carolina Board of Paralegal Certification.

Keeping it current takes 10 hours of approved continuing education each year, at least 1 in professional responsibility or professionalism, and every South Carolina paralegal certification expires June 30 and must be renewed by July 1 each year, regardless of the original certification date.

The eligibility criteria and fees for the certification were not in the pages we read — confirm both with the Board before you apply.

Nationally, the options include NALA's Certified Paralegal, which runs on five-year recertification periods of 50 CLE hours including at least 5 in legal ethics; NFPA's CRP, earned through its PCCE exam, and RP, earned through its PACE exam; and NALS's ALP, CLP and PP. And whatever the letters after a name, NALA draws a line between a certificate — completing a learning program — and a certification, which validates mastery against a professional standard, so finishing a paralegal course does not by itself make anyone a certified paralegal.

Our research did not identify specific South Carolina paralegal programs, so we name none.

Whether a particular school — the University of South Carolina included — offers a paralegal certificate is something our research did not confirm, so ask the school directly.

What the sources do establish is how ABA approval works, which matters because NALA's Category 1 route names ABA-approved programs: approval follows a self-evaluation report and an on-site visit, the ABA House of Delegates gives final approval, and approval lasts seven years.

Ask any program you are weighing whether it is currently ABA-approved, and ask the Board of Paralegal Certification what education counts toward the SCCP.

None found in our research.

South Carolina does not appear in NFPA's list of state legal paraprofessional programs — the list we read names Arizona's program and document-preparer program, Minnesota's pilot project, Oregon's licensed paralegal program and Utah's Licensed Paralegal Practitioner program.

Treat the question as open and check the Supreme Court of South Carolina's rules for the current status.

Working as a paralegal in South Carolina is open without certification; using the state's reserved titles is not.

The titles “South Carolina Certified Paralegal” and “SCCP” are reserved for individuals certified by the South Carolina Board of Paralegal Certification, so a paralegal who has not earned that credential needs different wording on a resume, signature block or business card.