Law 34


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LAW 34 - LEGAL RESEARCH

Course Syllabus

 

Student Responsibility: Our online law program requires a comprehensive and complete understanding of a number of details, procedures and information. Students are assumed to have carefully read all of our procedures and policies located at our "Welcome Message" at http://welcome.pbwiki.com - which is a comprehesive collection of materials for our program. Students are held fully responsible for information contained at this central location.  Students must login to their online class and post their introduction and first set of assignments within a week from the start of the semester or session or they may be excluded and dropped from class, and not permitted to enter the moodle classroom.

 


 

Course Assignments:  The assignments for each class and the due dates are located at duedates for each class. If there is a "conflict" between the due dates and the moodle class assignments, quizzes, forums, text and materials, the  moodle materials will "over rule" if there are differences with the duedates.


 

YOUR INSTRUCTOR

see information on your instructor including website, office hours, phone no. etc. http://lamission.edu/law/lawfaculty/htm                              

 

COURSE DESCRIPTION

This course is the study of legal research

 

The student learns how to do legal research in a law library and online, along with how to report the results of the legal research. Law 34 teaches the paralegal personal computer user skills, including using the internet and electronic computer research of various legal databases and legal research materials.

 

 

The student will learn the process of legal research, and will learn how to apply it to a series of research problems to learn and improve the skills of legal research in the office environment.

 

 

The student will learn how to distinguish cases and codes/statutes, and how to carry on a legal research problem, and will prepare a written legal memorandum of the results of their legal research. 

 

Law 34 introduces the student to computerized legal research through the new technology of online legal research and the internet, accessing and finding case law, formulating a search request, searching with various search engines to find the law. The student will learn to use terms and connectors, restricting searches, searching in statutes, court rules & cases, retrieving legislation, current court decisions, searching government regulations and administrative law, using the internet. Each student will be assigned a major research topic to research and report their results using what they have learned in the course.

 

COURSE TEXT     (Recommended but NOT Requred) 

 

Read legal reseearch notes/

 

Legal Research: How to Find & Understand the Law by Attorney Stephen R. Elias & Attorney Susan Levinkind You may obtain this book from our bookstore or online - see http://lamission.edu/law/textbooks

 

 

STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES

 

By the end of the class, the student will be able to:

 

1. demonstrate their knowledge in the substantive law and procedures of legal research including Primary and Secondary Legal Resources, Overview of Legal Research, Steps to Take in case law research, Introduction to Basic Legal Citation, Developing "Keywords" to do Legal Research, Getting Background Information, Refining Statement of the Legal Issue, Finding Constitutions, Statutes, Regulations and Ordinances, Finding cases, Expand and Update your Legal Research, Write Legal Memorandums, doing federal and state legal research

 

2. "think critically" in law, and in the area of legal research

 

3. brief a law case in legal research

 

4.  prepare a legal research and writing paper in the area of legal writing - using correct legal research procedures, citations, and good legal writing content, form, and presentation.

 

GRADING & EVALUATION

The class will be composed of quizzes, assignments, and projects.

Grades are as follow:

 

A =  90-100 percent of total points

B =  80-89

C =  70-79

D =  60-69

F =  Below 60


Distribution of Grades

Tests  is 30% of your grade

Assignments  are 35% of your grade

Final Legal Research Paper  = 25 % of your grade

Disussion Forums = 10% of your grade and entered at the end of the semester


Office Hours: see Faculty page at http://lamission.edu/law/lawfaculty.htm - Office Hours, Mon. - Friday 9-5 pm at the Office Telephone number of each Faculty member, or upon special appointment - email the faculty member for your appointment date and time.

 

Course Structure: This course will be offered through a course management system online. Students should login to the online Mission Portal at http://lamission.edu/online to locate the class and its appropriate portal.

 

LATE ASSIGNMENTS: ASSIGNMENTS SUBMITTED LATE WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED UNLESS PRIOR APPROVAL IS REQUESTED AND GRANTED BY THE INSTRUCTOR.

 

EXTRA CREDIT: Since the law is in constant change, along with the advent of the Internet, issues may arise that are timely and germane to our class. Therefore, opportunities may arise during the term that allow for extra credit, although no extra credit is presently offered.

 

INCOMPLETE: If you require a grade of "incomplete," you must advise me as soon as possible and discuss the terms of its removal.

 

ACADEMIC HONESTY: Academic honesty is highly valued at Mission College, just as it is at all colleges and universities. A student must always submit work that represents his or her original words or ideas. If any words or ideas are used that do not represent the student's original words or ideas, the student must cite all relevant sources. The student should also make it clear to what extent such sources were used. Words or ideas that require citations include, but are not limited to, all hard copy or electronic publications, whether copyrighted or not, and all verbal or visual communications when the content of such communications clearly originates from an identifiable source. All submissions to any public meeting or private mailbox fall within the scope of words and ideas that require citations if used by someone other than the original author.

 

Course Assignments: see assignments at http://duedates.pbwiki.com

 

Course Evaluation: 

The final grade will be determined by: averaging quizzes, discussion questions and written assignments, each assigned 100 or more points.

 

* This syllabus is subject to change. Please note revision dates ("updated") below. Students are responsible for the most recent updated version of this syllabus.

 

Reasonable Accommodations:  If you are a student with a disability and require online class accommodations, please see Prof. Jordan an email to discuss arrangements.  The sooner we are aware that you are eligible for accommodations, the quicker we will be able to provide them.  If you have not done so already, you may also wish to contact the DSP&S Office in Instructional Building 1018 (phone 818/364-7732 TTD 818/364-7861). There website and resources are located at http://www.lamission.edu/dsps/

 

For students requiring accommodations, the DSP&S Office at Mission College provides special assistance in areas like: registering for courses, specialized tutoring, note-taking, mobility assistance, special instruction, testing assistance, special equipment, special materials, instructor communications, community referrals and job placement.

 

Updated: 11-12-09