Course Description - Law 34 -Legal Research

Welcome to the world of Legal Research. Legal Research is the study of the fundamental principles of legal research as they apply to law, the law office, the courts, clients, law and paralegal students. The course examines the American Court System, the steps of legal research, and provides practice models ("rubrics") and examples to familiarize the student with legal research, and to gain skills in locating "correct" legal answers to specific legal questions and inquiries.

The format of the course is either "on campus" and/or "online", and/or a combination of both "on campus/online depending on the student, and the desired delivery system. Your grade therefore is determined a little differently from what you're probably used to. You will be taking a few quizzes, and "posting" your legal analysis to questions, but you will be guided through some practice "rubrics" using three (3) different approaches to legal research and analysis. You should try to learn each of the different approaches, even if you become more comfortable and familiar with one of the "rubrics".

The mechanics of the course, and what you will need to do, are described in detail below.

This 6-week online course is designed to give the student familiarity with the substantive law of contracts, including offer, acceptance, consideration, legality, enforceability, breach, damages, and the other essential elements of a contract. A good capsule summary of contract law is found at Emanuel Summaries (Contracts). You will will learn to "think critically" in law, and in the area of contracts. You will learn how to draft a typical "Breach of Contract" lawsuit, and to prepare a comprehensive Contract for Software Development. You will also learn how to do legal research in the area of Business Law and Contracts. You will improve your legal writing skills and legal drafting/writing skills. Finally, you will improve your study skills, and you will improve how you study law.

This course is offered online in order 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.

Online Quizzes: The quizzes  will consist of one or more short-answer essay
questions. Since these quizzes are online with no time limit other than a deadline for
submission, they are equivalent to a take-home test. Thus, the questions will probe a
deeper understanding of the concepts, which requires critical thinking and an intellectual
tying-together of the reading material and the Web sites. The answers will be submitted to
the instructor via email.

Legal Documents: These will consist of a "Breach of Contract" lawsuit, and a Contract for Software Development.

Course Evaluation:

The final grade will be determined by:

Quiz average: 40%

Discussion participation: 40%

Research paper: 20%

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.