Course Description - Law 10 - Intro to Law
Course Description - Law 10 - Intro to Law
Welcome to the Law 10 - the Introduction to Law. Law
10 is an introductory course which formalizes the career of the
paralegal
or legal assistant. It is an introduction to law, social forces
and the law, a comparison of the role of the lawyer and the legal
assistant, and an introduction to legal terminology and bibliography,
preparing a litigation project. It forms part of the Paralegal
Certificate offered at Mission College, and is recommended
as the first course for the beginning Paralegal Student. Paralegals
are now regulated by a new
law as of January 1, 2001. which require Paralegals to be
trained in the law and to receive academic training in at least
8 classes or 24 semester units of law related classes. (for
more information on our Paralegal Program)
Law 10 introduces the student to the law, in general. It is the
first, and introductory class to
the world of law, and the paralegal program. The student will
receive a general overview of
law, the court system, and court procedures, cases, codes, litigation
and the like.
The student will learn how to read and brief law cases, the
court rules, how to locate
California and Federal Codes, how to use the internet to do legal research,
how to do a
simple pleading, how to locate and use law on the internet, how
to use search engines, and
the student will learn how to use the paralegal
webpage to locate other
areas of the law.
This law class is designed to give the student a familiarity with and the student will learn an overview of law and the legal system, , including the courts, the court system, how to read, understand and brief court cases, how to read, and understand California and Federal Codes, and a general overview of substantive laws which a paralegal must be familiar with to do their job properly.
The student will learn to "think critically" in law,
This will be accomplished through the multiple-choice quizzes,
postings to hypothetical legal questions in a threaded discussion
format ("hypernews")
and written assignments. The
assignments require the student to read and brief court cases,
anaylyze code sections, prepare a pleading, and other relevant
legal tasks related to the subject materials.
The student will learn how to do legal
research in general, how to phrase a legal question or issue,
and how to search for the correct "legal" answer. The
student will
improve their writing skills and learn basic skills in legal drafting
and writing. Finally, he student will improve
their study skills and will improve
how they study law.
This course is offered through the internet to meet the student's
needs for flexibility in time and space. Many college students
are working full-time or have transportation limitations due to
financial reasons.The course is transferrable to CSU. You should
consult with our Counseling
Department to determine the exact trasnferability of this
class. You may also wish to email
a counselor at our college.
Types of activities:
Lectures will be posted under "lectures" on our homepage for this class. The lecture will be both a summary of the reading assignment and a filling-in of the gaps in that assignment. One purpose of the lecture is to answer the question, "What do you really need to know?". It will help the student focus on the major concepts in the textbook.
Reading Assignments are listed under "assignments", and will be given from Textbook :Textbook: Our textbook for this class is WEST'S BUSINESS LAW by Clarkson, Miller, Jentz, and Cross (Seventh Edition-Dark Blue, you may use the Sixth Edition-Burgundy Red, however class room discussions will refer to the Seventh Edition - there are slight differences, however, a student can easily use the Sixth Edition for this class), ISBN 0-538-879-3 (hard). You may order the textbook through ecampus.com for $71.86 (as of 3/22/00)at the following location (West Business Law - 7th Edition). The textbook is also available at the Campus Bookstore or directly from West Publishing 1-800-328-4880, or you may order it directly from ITP at email:findit@kiosk.thomson.com.
Threaded discussions (on Bulletin
Board): student participation in asynchronous
online discussions will form a significant part of the grade (see
grading below). Discussion
questions based on text and Website readings will be posted weekly
in the Bulletin Board
page. Discussions will take place using the Bulletin Board.
Quizzes: The quizzes will
consist of multiple-choice questions (25 for each chapter), the
questions will probe a deeper understanding of the concepts, which
requires critical thinking and an intellectual tying-together
of the reading material.
Legal Briefs: These will consist of writing
"legal briefs".
Course Evaluation:
The final grade will be determined by:
Quiz average: 100 points per each quiz
Discussion questions: 100 points per discussion
Assignments: 250 or more points per project.
The grade is calculated by an excel spreadsheet by adding up the
total points available and dividing that into the actual points
earned and multiplying by 100 to give a point grade out of 100.
Grades are 0-50 F, 50-68 D, 68-79 C, 80-89 B, and 90-100 A.
Required Resources:
System requirements: IBM or compatible (486/33 CPU minimum)
with Windows
or Mac or compatible with 6.05 operating system or higher, 8 megs
of RAM, 20
megs free hard disc space, modem with a 9600 baud rate minimum.