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The differences between legal investigators and criminal justice lawyers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 2-4 years to become both a legal investigator and a criminal justice lawyer. Additionally, a legal investigator has an average salary of $72,914, which is higher than the $49,977 average annual salary of a criminal justice lawyer.
The top three skills for a legal investigator include investigative reports, litigation and legal investigations. The most important skills for a criminal justice lawyer are criminal justice, semester, and public safety.
| Legal Investigator | Criminal Justice Lawyer | |
| Yearly salary | $72,914 | $49,977 |
| Hourly rate | $35.05 | $24.03 |
| Growth rate | 10% | 10% |
| Number of jobs | 9,582 | 824 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 61% | Bachelor's Degree, 53% |
| Average age | 46 | 46 |
| Years of experience | 4 | 4 |
Legal investigators are professionals tasked with providing research, investigative services, and surveillance to the public, insurance companies, financial institutions, law firms, banks, and even local law enforcement agencies. They use methods and tools to uncover facts about financial, personal, and legal matters. This type of investigator must pay attention to analyzing details and evidence, but it will be difficult to know to begin. There is no need for formal education to be a legal investigator, one must take a legal investigator certificate course.
A criminal justice lawyer is responsible for representing clients in court with criminal charges and defends them according to legal requirements and procedures. Criminal justice lawyers analyze the case by undergoing in-depth research and investigation that would support settlement claims. They reference laws and state regulations to identify the clients' options for case resolution. A criminal justice lawyer must have extensive knowledge of the legal industry, as well as possessing excellent critical-thinking skills to strategize appeals and negotiate pleas on trials.
Legal investigators and criminal justice lawyers have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Legal Investigator | Criminal Justice Lawyer | |
| Average salary | $72,914 | $49,977 |
| Salary range | Between $45,000 And $117,000 | Between $32,000 And $76,000 |
| Highest paying City | - | San Francisco, CA |
| Highest paying state | - | California |
| Best paying company | - | Indiana University of Pennsylvania |
| Best paying industry | - | Professional |
There are a few differences between a legal investigator and a criminal justice lawyer in terms of educational background:
| Legal Investigator | Criminal Justice Lawyer | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 61% | Bachelor's Degree, 53% |
| Most common major | Criminal Justice | Criminal Justice |
| Most common college | University of Richmond | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill |
Here are the differences between legal investigators' and criminal justice lawyers' demographics:
| Legal Investigator | Criminal Justice Lawyer | |
| Average age | 46 | 46 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 66.0% Female, 34.0% | Male, 48.9% Female, 51.1% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 5.7% Unknown, 4.4% Hispanic or Latino, 7.9% Asian, 6.5% White, 75.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.3% | Black or African American, 5.7% Unknown, 4.4% Hispanic or Latino, 7.9% Asian, 6.5% White, 75.3% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.3% |
| LGBT Percentage | 10% | 10% |