Becoming a paralegal or getting paralegal training can be very exciting as you are embarking on a new career that could be life-changing for yourself and your family.
Before getting too far ahead of yourself, however, and signing up for or completing classes that will not help you it is a good idea to verify a few things.
A few areas of getting your certificate or degree are important because you want to make sure your training is legitimate and pertains to the area of paralegal employment that you will be entering.
Here are three things you will want to verify before you start your paralegal degree or certificate online:

1. Verify that the School or Program is Legitimate: It is hard to do this on your own as you don't really know who is okay to use and who is not so there are a few ways to go about this.
   You could call the customer service line for the school and find out if they are accredited or who can vouch for them.
   It is usually a good rule of thumb to not use someone who doesn't have a customer/student service line.
   You could call a local paralegal or lawyer's office to verify if they have heard of the program or school or you could do the same with a local school that offers the program themselves.
   
2. Verify the Length of the Training: If a school is claiming to be able to train you in a time period that is far too short to be able to actually learn don't trust it.
   If it sounds to good to be true, it is.
   Verify the length of the class also because if you are going to need employment by a certain date you need to know if your training will have been concluded or not by that time.
   
3. Verify that the Subject Matter is Pertinent: There are many, many different types of paralegals that assist attorneys or lawyers in one way or another.
   Each different field of law or assistance will require a different set of skills to be learned by you.
   Make sure you know the type of education you need for the type of job you are looking for and study that field in-depth.
   It is a waste of your time to try to educate yourself in many different paralegal fields in stead of just learning the field in which you will work.