ENG-235
This course may very well be the most important course a paralegal
student can take, simply because it is in the area of litigation that
attorneys rely most heavily on their paralegals. This course will
provide students with a comprehensive understanding of the major aspects
of civil litigation, from both the plaintiff’s and defendant's
perspectives. The course will focus on a variety of subjects aimed
at teaching the student how to manage a case from beginning to end.
The subjects covered in the course will include determining jurisdiction
and venue; initiating and commencing a lawsuit; client counseling;
investigation techniques and the discovery process; the drafting of
summons and complaints, motions, briefs and pleadings; settlement
techniques; the trial itself; pre and post-trial activities and the
appeals process.
This course will also offer an intensive but simplified introduction
to U.S. legal systems and methodologies, basic principles of stare
decisis and precedent, the nature of legal education, and sources
of law. Topics include: The judicial structure, including both federal
and state; statutes, regulations, common law and constitutional
law; synthesizing sources of law; the judicial process and the doctrine
of stare decisis; overruling precedent, holding, rationale, and
dictum.
The key component of the paralegal’s role in civil litigation
is drafting documents. Therefore, this course will also focus on
training our students to do competent legal research and develop
their ability to draft legal documents. Students will learn to identify
and use a variety of research tools, including both the online
collection provided by LexisNexis® as well as traditional book-based
methods of legal research. A portion of the course will focus on
the various types and form books of reference books, proper case
citation, cite checking and the proper method of case reporting,
shepardizing, methods of compiling legislative histories and administrative
legal research.
Legal Skills Acquired
:
At the completion of this course, the student will:
- possess the skill to research legal issues
in any jurisdiction.
- be familiar physical and online law libraries,
i.e. Lexis/Nexis.
- know which legal sources may be cited in which
contexts.
- be able to distinguish between binding authority
and “persuasive” authority.
- be able to determine whether a case is good
law by “Shepardizing” the case.
- be able to draft a brief or other legal memorandum.
- understand the basic rules of legal writing.
- understand the rules of jurisdiction and venue
in civil courts.
- be able to assist in the drafting of pleadings,
i.e. complaints, answers, etc.
- be familiar with various legal pleadings.
- have learnt various discovery mechanisms.
- understand admissibility of discovery results
in a court of law.
- be familiar with the basics of trial procedure
and the rules of evidence.
- learn to which court a verdict can or must
be appealed.
- understand standards of appellate courts.
- be able to assist in organizing and the preparing
of class action lawsuits.
- understand the requirements for a class action
suit to be brought.
- understand class certification, as well as
the negotiating process through which class actions
are often settled.
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