South Carolina's Supreme Court runs a voluntary South Carolina Certified Paralegal program for paralegals who already hold a national certification, and its decisions set the line between preparatory paralegal work and the practice of law.
Trident Technical College leads South Carolina's ABA-approved certificate programs, ahead of Horry-Georgetown Technical College.
As a South Carolina resident you'd pay $5,059 to $6,237 in tuition and fees for a full-time year at South Carolina's ranked programs.
5 approved programs in South Carolina can be finished at least partly online, by each school's own page or, where a page says nothing, the federal record or the ABA's online flag.
ABA-approved programs conferred 80% of the 132 paralegal credentials South Carolina schools awarded in 2023-24.
Paralegals in South Carolina earn a median $53,880, below the national $62,890.
In South Carolina, 5 approved schools charge residents of their own college district less than other state residents. Trident Technical College, ranked first for the certificate, charges residents of its district $4,564 in tuition and fees for a full-time year, against $5,059 for other South Carolina residents. The rankings below cover 2 certificate programs and 5 associate degrees. Another 4 schools in the state conferred paralegal credentials in 2023-24 without ABA approval. They are listed at the foot of the page with their federal figures.
Approved programs are ranked within each award level on tuition and fees (what a full-time year costs a South Carolina resident), graduation rate and paralegal graduates. Positions below are within South Carolina,
but each score compares a program with every approved program at its level in the country.
How each score is calculated.
The South Carolina Certified Paralegal (SCCP)
South Carolina's own paralegal certification is a court program. In November 2015 the Supreme Court adopted Rule 429 of the appellate court rules, creating voluntary certification run by a nine-member Board of Paralegal Certification (five lawyers and four certified paralegals) and administered by the South Carolina Bar. Nobody must be certified to work as a paralegal, but only those the Board certifies may use the title South Carolina Certified Paralegal or SCCP.
The SCCP builds on a national credential rather than replacing one. Under the regulations, an applicant must already hold NALA's CLA/CP, NALS's PP (whose exam NALS has paused) or NFPA's PACE Registered Paralegal, and pay $50 a year. There's no route on experience alone. Every certification expires June 30, and renewal takes 10 hours of continuing paralegal education, one of them in ethics. Since September 2026, holders in good standing with five consecutive years of certification who are 65 or older (or permanently disabled) and have left the legal field can take an emeritus status.
The S.C. Supreme Court has implemented a program for the voluntary certification of paralegals in South Carolina.
What Paralegal Work Is, And Is Not, Practicing Law
The Supreme Court's standard, restated in Doe v. Condon (2000), is that paralegal work is not the practice of law while it is preparatory: research, investigation or drafting that lets the supervising attorney carry the matter to a conclusion. In the same case the Court held that a paralegal giving unsupervised legal seminars to the public, or answering legal questions from the public or clients, engages in unauthorized practice, and that paying paralegals by the number of cases they handle is improper fee-splitting.
The South Carolina Bar's ethics opinions fill in the practice: a paralegal may carry a business card with the firm's name if it states the paralegal is not a lawyer, a lawyer may use a freelance paralegal service with adequate supervision, and bonuses may be based on amounts billed if the billing is reasonable. The Bar has no paralegal membership, but it keeps a directory of paralegals available for contract work, certified or not, and certified paralegals attend most Bar CLE seminars at half the attorney price.
The activities of a paralegal do not constitute the practice of law as long as they are limited to work of a preparatory nature, such as legal research, investigation, or the composition of legal documents, which enable the licensed attorney-employer to carry a given matter to a conclusion through his own examination, approval or additional effort.
In February 2024 the Supreme Court approved, as a three-year pilot, the SC NAACP Housing Advocate Program, in which trained nonlawyer volunteers help tenants facing eviction in magistrates court. Advocates complete twelve hours of training and pass a final exam, and may only confirm that an eviction has been filed, advise the tenant to request a hearing and explain how and when, and point out narrow defenses. The Court found that within those limits, and under lawyer supervision, they don't practice law.
we approve the Housing Program on a provisional, Pilot basis for a term of three years, unless extended or terminated by Order of this Court.
ABA-Approved Paralegal Certificate Programs In South Carolina
2 approved programs in South Carolina conferred undergraduate paralegal certificates in 2023-24. Tuition is a full-time year of in-state tuition and fees. The out-of-state or in-district figure is beside it where it differs.
#1Paralegal certificate programs in South Carolina
Score47.7/ 100
Paralegal Certificate (CAS.PARA)
Trident Technical College
North Charleston, South Carolina · Public · ABA-approved
Trident says its paralegal program has held ABA approval since 1993 and that all of its paralegal faculty are licensed South Carolina attorneys.
Key Program Details
Paralegal AAS: 63 credit hours
Paralegal Certificate: 39 credit hours, same 13 law courses as the degree
Trident gives 1993 as the start of its ABA approval
Day and night classes for full-time or part-time students
Faculty are licensed South Carolina attorneys
$200 per semester credit
Read more
Trident Technical College in North Charleston, South Carolina, offers a Paralegal Associate in Applied Science (63 credit hours) and a Paralegal Certificate in Applied Science (39 credit hours). Both require the same 13 law-related courses, among them torts, legal bibliography, civil litigation, family law, property law, legal writing, law office management, wills, trusts and probate, claims investigation and a law practice workshop; degree students add general education courses. At least nine credit hours of legal specialty courses must be completed through synchronous instruction, and classes are offered both day and night for full-time or part-time students.
The associate degree requires proof of high school graduation (or GED) and qualifying placement levels. The certificate is for students who already hold an associate of arts or associate of science degree or higher, or 27 semester hours of college credit at a C or better that include set general education courses. All students start in the associate degree program until Admissions and the program director clear them for the certificate, and paralegal students cannot register themselves for classes. Transfer students may bring in only four courses from ABA-approved paralegal programs for LEG-prefix credit, and an articulation agreement lets graduates enter the bachelor's degree in paralegal studies at Lander University as juniors.
AASCertificate
catalog.tridenttech.eduOctober 1, 2026
#2Paralegal certificate programs in South Carolina
Horry-Georgetown Technical College teaches its ABA-approved paralegal program at its Grand Strand campus in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, as a 36-credit Paralegal Specialist certificate for students who already hold an associate or bachelor's degree and a 66-credit Associate in Applied Science, and students choose for each live class session whether to attend in the campus courtroom classroom or remotely by videoconference.
Each live class can be attended on campus or remotely by videoconference
Daytime and evening classes at the Grand Strand campus in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
C or better required in every LEG course
$6,906 per program
Read more
The Paralegal Specialist certificate is 36 credit hours of paralegal courses: Torts, Legal Bibliography, Introduction to Law and Ethics, Civil Litigation I and II, Family Law, Property Law, Legal Writing, Wills, Trusts, and Probate, Law Practice Workshop, Real Estate Law I and Business Applications in the Law Office, set out in a sample schedule of fall, spring and summer semesters. The 66-credit Associate in Applied Science adds 21 credits of general education (English Composition I and II, American Government, General Psychology, Public Speaking, an American history course and a mathematics course), Business Law, Law Office Management, a choice of Workers Compensation or Criminal Law, and a Law Practice Workshop internship, in a sample schedule that runs through a sixth semester in the summer. Under HGTC's blended synchronous delivery model, students choose for each session whether to come to the Legal Studies Courtroom/Classroom laboratory on campus or join the same live class remotely through videoconferencing. Paralegal courses run in daytime and evening hours, and the internship is not offered through synchronous learning.
The certificate is a post-degree certificate: applicants need an associate or bachelor's degree, plus 24 credit hours in three of social sciences, English, natural sciences, mathematics, humanities or foreign language, and students admitted with an Associate in Applied Science must transfer in, or complete at HGTC, ENG 101, ENG 102 and SPC 205. The associate degree asks for a high school diploma or GED. Every paralegal (LEG) course needs a C or better for progression and graduation, and because most LEG courses are offered only once a year, HGTC says following the recommended sequence is extremely important. No more than half of a transfer student's legal specialty courses may come from another institution, and only from an ABA-approved program, for courses substantially similar to HGTC's and completed within five years of the transfer.
AASCertificate
hgtc.eduOctober 2, 2026
ABA-Approved Associate Degrees In Paralegal Studies In South Carolina
An associate's degree adds general education to the paralegal courses and usually takes two years full time.
Trident Technical College leads South Carolina's 5 approved associate programs, conferring 18 paralegal degrees in 2023-24.
#1In South Carolina
Score52.4/ 100
Paralegal, AAS (AAS.PARA)
Trident Technical College
North Charleston, South Carolina · Public · ABA-approved
Greenville Technical College's ABA-approved Paralegal Associate in Applied Science is a 64-credit degree that takes about five semesters and can be completed remotely through synchronous online courses, with a one-year Advanced Placement option for students who already hold a bachelor's degree.
Key Program Details
64 credit hours over about five semesters
The program can be completed remotely with synchronous online courses
Admission requires a high school diploma or GED
Bachelor's degree holders can finish in one year through Advanced Placement
Horry-Georgetown Technical College teaches its ABA-approved paralegal program at its Grand Strand campus in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, as a 36-credit Paralegal Specialist certificate for students who already hold an associate or bachelor's degree and a 66-credit Associate in Applied Science, and students choose for each live class session whether to attend in the campus courtroom classroom or remotely by videoconference.
Midlands Technical College in Columbia, South Carolina offers its ABA-approved Paralegal Studies program as an eight-course, 24-credit post-baccalaureate certificate for students who already hold a bachelor's degree and as a 61-credit Associate in Applied Science, with legal specialty courses taught by attorneys, judges and doctorate-level legal educators in classrooms (daytime and evening) and online.
Across South Carolina's ranked approved programs, you'd pay between $5,059 and $6,237 for a full-time year of tuition and fees as a South Carolina resident,
with a median of $5,916. 5 approved schools in South Carolina charge less again to residents of their college district: Greenville Technical College ($5,639), Horry-Georgetown Technical College ($4,468), Midlands Technical College ($4,788), Technical College of the Lowcountry ($5,500) and others.
Tuition and fees are what each school reported to IPEDS for a full-time undergraduate year in 2023-24, tuition plus required fees, before books, supplies or aid. A certificate of about 30 semester credits is roughly a full-time year of coursework, but programs differ in length and many students take them part-time, so read the figure as a way to compare schools. Colleges set new rates every year. It is not the price of a post-baccalaureate or extension certificate, which schools price separately.
What Paralegals Earn In South Carolina
BLS puts the median for paralegals and legal assistants (SOC 23-2011) in South Carolina at $53,880 a year,
$9,010 below the national median of $62,890, 45th highest of the 51 states and districts BLS reports.
The 10th percentile is $38,020 and the 90th is $75,640. 7,420 people in South Carolina hold the job. Figures are from the BLS OEWS May 2025 release. Paralegal pay in every state sets them side by side.
Every Paralegal Program In South Carolina
Every school in South Carolina that the ABA lists or that conferred a paralegal credential in 2023-24 is here, approved
programs first. Awards are the paralegal credentials each school reported to IPEDS for that year.
Common Questions About Paralegal Certification In South Carolina
How do you become a South Carolina Certified Paralegal?
Hold a national certification first: NALA's CLA/CP, NALS's PP or NFPA's RP. Then apply to the Board of Paralegal Certification with $50. Certification renews every June 30 with 10 hours of continuing paralegal education, one in ethics, and there is no route on experience alone.
Is paralegal certification in South Carolina required?
No. Certification under Rule 429 is voluntary, and paralegals may work for lawyers without it. Only those the Board certifies may use the South Carolina Certified Paralegal title.
How many ABA-approved paralegal programs are in South Carolina?
The ABA's directory lists 5 approved programs in South Carolina. IPEDS shows 9 schools in the state conferring paralegal credentials in 2023-24, and 4 of them run a program the ABA has not approved.
What are the best paralegal certificate programs in South Carolina?
On this ranking, Trident Technical College, which charges $5,059 a year in in-state tuition and fees, graduates 29% of its first-time students and conferred 8 paralegal certificates in 2023-24. Horry-Georgetown Technical College is next. Every program ranked here is ABA-approved.
What is the cheapest ABA-approved paralegal program in South Carolina?
Of the programs ranked here, you'd pay the least as a South Carolina resident at Trident Technical College, $5,059 for a full-time year of tuition and fees in 2023-24, or $4,564 if you live in its district. That's the figure the school reports to IPEDS, and schools reset it every year.
What do paralegals make in South Carolina?
BLS puts the median for paralegals and legal assistants (SOC 23-2011) in South Carolina at $53,880 a year, $9,010 below the national median of $62,890, with 7,420 people in the job. The 10th percentile is $38,020 and the 90th is $75,640. Figures are from the BLS OEWS May 2025 release.
Paralegal Programs In Other States
A campus program usually means the state you live in, but an online one does not. These are the
other states with enough ABA-approved programs for a page of their own.
