Paralegal Studies

A course covering the information, knowledge and skills needed to succeed specifically in paralegal studies, including study skills, setting academic goals, managing time, and technology skills such as word processing, presentations, and spreadsheets.

This course presents the role of paralegals in the legal system, introduces paralegal skills, and explores career opportunities. It highlights the ethical and professional guidelines that govern the paralegal field. It also introduces the sources of law, an overview of courts, and alternative dispute resolution systems.

This course presents the role of paralegals in the civil litigation process including alternative dispute resolution. It gives students instruction on basic legal research and writing, drafting documents and pleadings, and electronic filing.

This course provides the paralegal student with an introduction to the types and functions of technology in the legal field, providing them with knowledge of and access to commonly used software.

This course introduces future paralegals to all facets of contract preparation, including ethical, practical, and professional issues. Students practice drafting contracts for equipment, real estate, and business sales, while reviewing current case law, completing critical thinking assignments involving attorney briefings and legal cases.

This course expands the skills of the paralegal student in performing legal research and writing, emphasizing case briefing and legal analysis. It provides students with experience using research tools and search engines available in the legal field.

This course provides students with an understanding of the nature, formation and regulation of business organizations. Students will not only learn fundamental applications of business law, but also will be able to put those basics into practice after reading a multitude of real-world examples and performing several skill assessment activities.

This course provides a basic understanding of personal injury, wrongful death, professional malpractice, and civil rights litigation. Students develop skills in applying law to fact patterns as well as utilizing rules of state and federal civil procedure.

This course focuses on the paralegal's role in a family law practice and the opportunity to develop practical skills for family law practice paralegals. Topics include fundamental concepts of family law, including jurisdictional issues, paternity issues, adoption, formal and informal marriages, divorce, annulment, marital property, and the parent-child relationship with emphasis on the paralegal's role.

This course involves the study of both substantive and procedural criminal law, the different stages of the criminal process from the prospect of both prosecution and defense. Topics include the classifications and elements of state and federal crimes, constitutional civil rights, procedural and evidentiary rules, criminal trial litigation preparation.

This class will help students develop a comprehensive understanding of the early phases of the EDRM (Information Governance through Processing). Students will focus on the communication skills and paperwork needed to keep necessary parties informed. This class is designed to help students begin to manage e-discovery projects for a law firm.

This course provides additional practice and application in legal research and writing. Students will be expected to complete legal writing assignments utilizing more advanced legal analysis skills and based on state-specific laws.

This class provides students with an opportunity to develop and practice skills relating to the latter stages of the Electronic Discovery Reference Model (EDRM) framework using actual eDiscovery software that is used in the legal profession. Students will gain hands-on eDiscovery experience and learn best practices related to eDiscovery workflow and projects.

This course explores the procedures associated with e-discovery. Students gain a comprehensive understanding of the Electronic Discovery Reference Model (EDRM) and electronically stored information (ESI) fundamentals and the opportunity to build practical e-discovery paralegal skills. Topics include the pre-trial litigation process and the forms and phases of general discovery.

This course is designed to provide students with practical experience using the knowledge that they have gained in the program. Students will have the opportunity to prepare detailed pleadings, draft pre-trial motions, and write discovery requests in addition to learning about deposition preparation. This class additionally explores the role of paralegals in alternative dispute resolution and provides them with a chance to develop their skills relating to trial preparation and presentation in the electronic courtroom.

This course covers written communication skills with an emphasis on understanding the writing process, analyzing readings, and practicing writing for personal and professional applications.

A course building on lessons learned in English Composition I. In addition to reviewing the writing process, topics include research techniques, citation techniques, documentation formats, and critical analysis of written topics.

This course introduces the concepts and theories of interpersonal communication. Students will explore the process and functions of communication, developing relationships, communication strategies and skills, and interpersonal language skills, including conflict management.

This course provides foundational topics related to logic and critical thinking including, informal logic, formal logic, and fallacies.

This course begins with a review of real numbers and algebraic expressions before covering algebra topics including linear equations and inequalities, lines and functions, systems, exponents, polynomials, and factoring.