This course is a survey of the legal environment including law office procedures, duties and limitations of paralegals, professional responsibilities and expectations, interpretation of statutes and regulations, client relationships, legal ethics, and confidentiality. It also focuses on drafting projects featuring Microsoft Word software.
This course includes an overview of the fields of law and their history, the areas of law applicable to the paralegal, basic legal principles, legal terminology, the judicial system, legislation, criminal verses civil procedures, and the elements of a trial.
This course is a survey of the process of pursuing a civil action through the legal system. Topics include choice of courts, jurisdiction, venue, pleadings and related motions, discovery, pre-trial actions and preparation, and trial and appellate procedures. The course emphasizes the paralegal's role in gathering and organizing materials, interviewing and investigating, drafting complaints, answering interrogatories, pleadings, the trial notebook featuring Microsoft Word software, and assisting during the trial.
Students learn basic and advanced Microsoft Word features and functions to create, edit, store, and maintain common legal and business documents. This course focuses on practical word processing in legal organizations, emphasizing methods to help paralegals and others who work with computers in a legal environment to become more efficient and productive.
Course is offered On-line
This course introduces the various types of research for which the paralegal is typically responsible, including computer-aided legal research, procedures, and case documentation. Utilizing Microsoft Word software, students learn to develop written memoranda and legal documents for attorneys based on their research.
Students continue to develop knowledge of the various legal research tools along with greater emphasis on computer-aided legal research, development of legal writing techniques, principles of editing, and preparation of legal briefs.
This course is a study of the concept of legal wrongs and their treatment in law to include intentional torts, negligence, and strict liability as applied to persons, property, and business. Topics include assault and battery, false imprisonment, invasion of privacy, trespasses, breach of contract, contributory negligence, assumption of risk, no-fault systems, and workers' compensation.
This course studies laws affecting family-related matters such as divorce, separation, child custody and support, adoption, guardianship, and paternity. It includes document drafting of orders, affidavits, decrees, and complaints.
This course studies laws, regulations, and agencies governing employment practices, discrimination, labor unions, child labor, employee benefits, occupation safety and health, equal employment opportunity, and affirmative action.
This course studies the history and philosophy of criminal law, including the definition and classification of crimes and the criminal justice system, constitutional limitations, and criminal procedure and its applications.
This course studies the laws governing bankruptcy, voluntary and involuntary petitions, liens, preferences, powers of trustee, rights of debtors and creditors, liquidations, and the discharge of bankruptcy. It reviews the legal avenues for the collection of debts including garnishments and seizures.
This course includes an examination of the rules governing admissibility of evidence that must be followed in the examination of witnesses and in the production of documents, including the concepts of relevance, expert witness, hearsay, materiality, and privilege. It also studies the tools and procedures of pre-trial discovery including depositions, interrogatories, production of documents, physical and mental examinations, and requests for admissions.
This course covers both employment-related immigration as well as family-based immigration. The course introduces students to the process, the Federal forms used, and the interpretation of the laws covering the immigration procedural and substantive laws.
This course is a study of the law pertinent to wills, estates, and trusts including intestate succession, codicils, probate, types of trusts, and duties of trustees.
This course is a study of laws and state regulation of insurance, including the insurance contract, the role of insurance agents, insurable interest, insurer's defenses, forfeiture and exclusion of risk, election and waiver, no-fault statutes, and the various types of insurance. (Cross-listed as INSU 2421)
This course is a study of the laws governing formation, structure, regulation, and dissolution of corporations, including shareholder and director liability; types of financial structure; takeovers, mergers, and acquisitions; foreign existence and operation; and comparison of the corporate structure with other business entities. It emphasizes the legal assistant's role in gathering facts, organizing data, and drafting documents typically encountered in the corporate environment.
This course permits instruction in special content areas that are not appropriately treated in other Legal Studies courses.
Students begin work in a law office or other organization where they work under the supervision of an attorney. The variety of work assignments include such items as digesting depositions, organizing documents for discovery, drafting filings and pleadings, and reporting the status of cases. Students keep a notebook to log the kinds of tasks performed, and the work supervisor and Legal Studies program coordinator periodically review the notebook entries to assure that competencies appropriate to the role of the paralegal are being developed. Based on state guidelines, students must complete 40 hours of work for each credit hour.
During this internship, students continue to work under the supervision of an attorney and to record tasks in a notebook. Work assignments become progressively more difficult, and students are expected to expand the range of their competencies and corresponding abilities to work independently with less supervision and assistance. Based on state guidelines, students must complete 40 hours of work for each credit hour.