How To Become A Court Advocate: What It Is and Career Path

What is a court advocate and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

2 min read

Quoted Expert

Debra Minsky-Kelly

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a court advocate. For example, did you know that they make an average of $17.99 an hour? That's $37,426 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 12% and produce 52,400 job opportunities across the U.S.

What general advice would you give to a Court Advocate?

Debra Minsky-Kelly

Director of Field Education / Clinical Assistant Professor of Social Work, Carthage College

I think there are two critical skills for social workers, whether they are first entering the workforce or seasoned professionals. These skills are humility and an appreciation for ambiguity in our work. A humble approach to our work empowers clients to become experts on their circumstances. Social workers are then positioned in a collaborative role to help clients use existing skills and resources to improve their situations. An appreciation for ambiguity is closely related to the idea of humility. It helps us to remember that practice situations we face in this field are often far more complicated than they appear on the surface. Thus, all social workers need to make a strong commitment to lifelong learning and ongoing consultation with colleagues to ensure that multiple perspectives are included as we work to solve complex problems.

ScoreCourt AdvocateUS Average

Salary

2.9

Avg. Salary $37,426

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability Level

8.9

Growth Rate 12%

Growth Rate 0.3%

Diversity

10.0

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 1.77%

Asian 6.80%

Black or African American 11.69%

Hispanic or Latino 19.45%

Unknown 4.81%

White 55.49%

Gender

female 87.53%

male 12.47%

Age - 43

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 43

Stress Level

8.9

Stress level is very high

7.1 - high

Complexity Level

8.1

Complexity Level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work Life Balance

6.2

Work Life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a court advocate

Explore court advocate education requirements

Most common court advocate degrees

Bachelor's

64.4 %

Associate

15.6 %

Master's

12.3 %

Start to develop specific court advocate skills

Skills	Percentages
Crime Victims	12.07%
Crisis Intervention	11.14%
Safety Planning	9.25%
Domestic Violence Victims	8.91%
Technical Assistance	5.39%

Complete relevant court advocate training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 1-3 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New court advocates learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a court advocate based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real court advocate resumes.

Research court advocate duties and responsibilities

Assist patients in securing medical coverage by screening refer patients and coordinating the application process through successful approval.
Perform other duties as assigned by supervisor and work as a team member with the YWCA staff and administration.

Prepare your court advocate resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your court advocate resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a court advocate resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose From 10+ Customizable Court Advocate Resume templates

Build a professional Court Advocate resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your Court Advocate resume.

Apply for court advocate jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a court advocate job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:

Browse job boards for relevant postings
Consult your professional network
Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
Watch out for job scams

How do court advocates rate their job?

-/5

5 Stars

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Court Advocate reviews

A zippia user wrote a review on Dec 2019

Pros

Serving people, impacting change in communities, never boring

A zippia user wrote a review on Jun 2019