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In order to receive ParalegalTech certification, all students must
successfully complete the ten core courses. There are no prerequisites
for any of these courses; they are suitable for any individual with
the desire and determination to become a paralegal.
There is no specific order in which these courses must be
taken so students can begin the program with any course
they choose.
Each course is instructor led and
provides for extensive interaction and collaboration between
instructors and students. Each course lasts 5
weeks and includes
comprehensive courseware, 10 lectures, 2
examinations, and extensive research
assignments which utilize Lexis/Nexis.
Upon
completion of these courses, the student will have the general
core knowledge to work in any law firm as a paralegal; regardless
of its area of specialization.
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| This course is accessible at all times, to any enrolled student
who would like more general legal background before beginning the
program. It is a self-guided course which is designed to introduce
the student to the world of law and to acclimate the student to
the manner in which the law and the American Justice system operate.
The course, which consists of several prerecorded lectures and
chapters of reading, goes through the structure and operation of
the American government and the state and federal justice systems.
It includes a discussion of the various sources of law, their importance
and hierarchy and the manner in which they should be used when
conducting legal research. The course also introduces and discusses
the various substantive and procedural areas of law that are studied
over the course of the PTI curriculum and by law and paralegal
students nationwide. The basic points of each such area of law
are examined, discussed and surveyed, so that the student can familiarize
him or herself with the area as preparation for the more in-depth
study of the area or simply for the purpose of gaining a basic
understanding of the particular area of law. Special emphasis in
the course is placed on the study of legal ethics and the role
of the paralegal in the practice of the law.
The course also includes
in-depth LexisNexis instruction which will prepare the student
in the use of this essential legal research database.
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| BUS-114
Tort law is arguably one of the most important bodies of U.S.
law, simply because it governs basic everyday human interaction.
As such, tort law is one of the most important fields of paralegal
employment as well. This course will provide our students
with a general understanding of the laws dealing with civil
wrongs and the remedies for those wrongs, including intentional
torts, negligence, liability of principals for the actions
of their agents, strict liability, products liability, nuisance,
defamation, invasion of privacy and various factors that affect
the right of a plaintiff to bring suit against a defendant.
The course will also focus attention on the nature of personal
injury litigation, its documentation and practices, assessing
and evaluating claims of damages, losses and the formalities
of adjudication and/or settlement. Because tort law arises
from, and is so deeply rooted in, everyday life, it is one
of the most interesting, as well as relevant, areas of law
that you will study.
Course Objectives:
At the completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Describe the rules of intentional torts and apply them to
specific fact patterns.
- Describe the rules regarding defenses to allegations of such
torts and apply them to specific fact patterns.
- Draft a memorandum to a court or supervising attorney applying
the elements of a cause of action to a real life scenario.
- Research the elements of any cause of action under state or
federal law, using statutory and/or case law.
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Apply the rules regarding special duties
owed, including those by land owners, common carriers, innkeepers,
etc. to hypothetical fact patterns.
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Determine the extent of liability for a
specific negligent act.
- Describe appropriate defenses, such as contributory negligence
and assumption of risk.
- Apply the rules of strict and product liability, in product
liability cases, including failure to warn, mis-design and mis-manufacture.
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Evaluate whether a defamation action can
be successfully brought in a hypothetical fact pattern.
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Apply the elements for causes of action
in fraud, malicious prosecution, invasion of privacy and interference
with commerce, to hypothetical fact patterns.
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| ECO-110
If tort law is significant because it governs rules of conduct,
the way people interact with each other, then contract law is significant
because it governs the commitments we make to one another. This
course will provide students with a comprehensive understanding
of the common law of contracts, from the formation of a contract
through its termination, including the several ways in which a contract
can be entered, consideration, offer and acceptance, illusory contracts,
oral contracts, the statute of frauds, accord and satisfaction,
enforcement, damages for breach of contract, and the several defenses
available to a party who rescinds on a contract. Additionally, this
course will familiarize our students with the Uniform Commercial
Code and the laws governing the sale of goods.
Course Objectives:
At the completion of this course, the student will be able to:
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Properly research various sources of contract
law, including common law, case law, general obligation statutes
and the Uniform Commercial Code.
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Describe the manner in which a contract
can be formed by “mutual
assent.”
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Differentiate between an offer and a mere
expression of interest or an invitation to negotiate.
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Describe the rules of revocation by actions
or expressions, and apply those rules to fact patterns.
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Describe actions that constitute acceptance
of an offer.
- Describe why particular agreements are supported by consideration
in various hypothetical fact patterns.
- Describe the concept of legal detriment, as it relates to adequate
consideration.
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Apply some of the more complex aspects of the rule of consideration,
including the rules governing partial payment checks and promises
to pay rewards.
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Describe and apply the rules regarding defenses against the
enforcement of a contract.
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Recognize cases in which a contract can be voided due to
grounds such as mistake, duress, unconscionability, statute of
frauds, etc. and determine whether any such defense is applicable
in a particular case.
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Determine whether a contract has been breached
in a particular fact pattern.
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Apply the “substantial performance” rule to breach
of contract scenarios and the related “perfect tender” rule
of the U.C.C. in the sale of goods.
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Apply the rules for contract remedies, i.e., expectation,
reliance and restitution damages, to a particular fact pattern
and predict the kind of remedy a court will be most likely to
order in a particular case.
- Apply the rules for contract remedies, i.e., expectation, reliance
and restitution damages, to a particular fact pattern.
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Describe the kind of remedy a court will
likely order in a particular case.
- Describe the conditions necessary before a court will order
equitable remedies, such as specific performance.
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| BUS-112 (Part I)
This course is designed to introduce our students to the basic
concepts of criminal law. The course will outline the definitions
and elements of the common law crimes against persons, crimes
against property, and the various legal defenses available
to criminal defendants. In addition, certain topics in criminal
procedure will be covered to highlight the constitutional safeguards
and procedures involved from arrest through trial.
Course Objectives:
At the completion of this course, the student will be able to:
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Describe the necessary elements for the
prosecution of any crime.
- Determine whether a crime has been committed based on a fact
pattern, and, if so, which crime has been committed.
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Describe the basic elements of the various common law crimes.
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Research and apply the elements of a crime in various state
or federal jurisdictions.
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Research criminal codes and apply the elements
of a crime in various state or federal jurisdictions.
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Prepare a memorandum with regard to a question
of criminal law in a hypothetical fact pattern.
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Describe and apply the various defenses that are available
under the criminal laws of different jurisdictions.
- Apply federal and/or state sentencing guidelines (where applicable)
to convictions.
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BUS-112 (Part II)
Real estate is a field of law where paralegals are of the utmost importance
to their employers. This course will provide our students with a fundamental
understanding of the concepts and working terminology of real property
law. The course reviews disclosure obligations and regulations affecting
brokers, sales people and owners. The course provides an introduction
to buying, selling, leasing and investing in real estate; A brief
look at the general laws of land ownership and transactions, including
rights and interests in land, forms of ownership and methods of title
transfer; title examinations and insurance; parties to a real estate
transaction; the sales agreement and contract; real estate finance
including appraisals and mortgages; the owner-broker relationship;
deeds and indentures; real property descriptions; the closing and
settlement process; and post-settlement activities. This course will
further acquaint our students with the process of a real estate transaction
and the documentation involved.
Course Objectives:
At the completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Describe the “estate system” and explain ways the
estate system is relevant to determining ownership of property.
- Describe and distinguish concepts of co-tenancy, joint tenancy,
tenancy in common or by the entirety and community property.
- Describe the rights and responsibilities of a landlord and
tenant.
- Describe the grounds for eviction of a tenant.
- Determine whether a wrongful eviction or other wrongs against
a tenant has been committed.
- Describe key points in a real estate sales contract and a deed
for real property.
- Describe the general procedures of a real estate closing.
- Apply rules of easements, i.e., rights of owners and non-owners
as to property usage, to a particular fact pattern.
- Describe and apply the rules of eminent domain, water rights,
etc.
- Apply the rules governing local zoning laws and determine
whether a particular client’s situation is one in which
he or she is likely to receive a sought variance, based on
the general standards under which local zoning boards operate.
- Determine when zoning boards’ decisions can be appealed
to state and federal courts.
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BUS-110
This course is designed to provide our students with a basic understanding
of the principles of the most significant laws pertaining to business
organizations.
The Business Organization Law component of the course will deal
with the individual characteristics of various business organizations,
including publicly held and closely held corporations, general partnerships,
sole proprietorships, limited liability partnerships and limited
liability corporations. These various forms of business will be
compared and contrasted to determine the advantages and disadvantages
of creating and maintaining each form.
Students will become familiar with the laws governing the creation
and operation of these various business entities, their dissolutions
and liquidations, and their relationships to various categories
of creditors and shareholders.
The Bankruptcy component of the course will acquaint our students
with an understanding of the three most common forms of bankruptcy
under Chapters 7, 11 and 13 of the United States Bankruptcy Code.
Although bankruptcy law is primarily relevant to businesses, we
will explore the entire spectrum of bankruptcy law, including individual
bankruptcies under Chapters 7 and 13, in addition to an overview
of the complexities of business bankruptcies under Chapters 7 and
11 of the Bankruptcy Code.
Certain practical matters to be covered will include the filing
of bankruptcy petitions, motion practice in bankruptcy, the role
and powers of the bankruptcy trustee, dischargeability of debts,
reorganization of businesses, and the analysis and preparations
of Statements and Schedules.
Course Objectives:
At the completion of this course, the student will be able to:
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Describe the various documents that must be filed with government
agencies in order to create various types of businesses.
- Explain the characteristics of various business formations,
especially as they relate to tax and liability issues.
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Describe the formation of a corporation,
including the certificate of incorporation
and corporate bylaws.
- Determine which form of business is most appropriate in a particular
situation.
- Describe the various remedies available to shareholders in
claims of mismanagement against key personnel of the corporation.
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Describe the basics of mergers, acquisitions and hostile takeovers.
- Describe the procedures through which mergers and hostile takeovers
are accomplished and apply some of the laws surrounding those
events to hypothetical situations.
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Describe the functioning of the major stock exchanges, such
as, the NY Stock Exchange and NASDAQ.
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Explain the various types of bankruptcy protection available
under federal law.
- Identify the most appropriate type of bankruptcy protection
to seek, given an individual’s financial situation.
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Differentiate between the different types of bankruptcy filings,
including liquidation bankruptcy under Chapter 7 of the Bankruptcy
Code and reorganization under Chapters 11 and 13.
- Describe the bankruptcy process, including the various timetables
involved.
- Describe and apply the rule of priority of creditors, and determine
which debts will most likely have priority over others.
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BUS-111
This course will familiarize our students with a practical understanding
of the laws of estate planning. Students learn how the federal estate
tax system works and what to consider when doing estate planning.
Topics include: federal estate and gift taxation; various estate
planning techniques; proper use of trusts; life insurance as an
estate planning tool; gifts; charitable transfers; intra family
business and property transfers; and planning for incapacity.
Students will learn the appropriate procedures relevant to drafting
and interpreting will and trust documents, and will become familiar
with the initial planning and preparation necessary for a comprehensive
estate plan. Also discussed are techniques for drafting estate planning
documents, estate administration, probate practice, the closing
of an estate, relevant gift tax laws, and the role of the probate
courts in estate planning. Additionally, basic inheritance issues
are explored.
Course Objectives:
At the completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Describe the rules of intestacy, and apply those rules to
a fact pattern.
- Describe the basic structure of the federal and state gift
and estate tax system.
- Assist in the preparation of an estate plan for a hypothetical
client.
- Assist in the drafting a will, including various testamentary
trusts that may be appropriate for a hypothetical client’s
situation.
- Draft various provisions in wills and explain their significance.
- Determine which beneficiaries are entitled to what assets,
based on looking at the provision of a will.
- Explain the purpose and effect of credit shelter trusts,
qualified terminable interests in property, qualified domestic
trusts, individual single beneficiary trusts, etc.
- Describe and apply various rules regarding will execution.
- Assist in the preparation and filing of a probate proceeding.
- Describe the various steps to complete the probate process.
- Assist in the drafting of a variety of trusts.
- Explain the forms and functions of various types of trusts
both revocable and irrevocable, irrevocable life insurance
trusts, etc.
- Explain the benefits of charitable trusts
- Determine whether a charitable trust is a good idea for
a particular hypothetical client.
- Describe the features of the various types of charitable
trusts, and when their usage is appropriate.
- Describe and apply the basic rules that govern trust administration,
including the rights and responsibilities of the trustee.
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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.
Course Objectives:
At the completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Research legal issues in any jurisdiction.
- Navigate through online law libraries, i.e. LexisNexis.
- Cite appropriate authorities and legal sources.
- Distinguish between “binding” authority and “persuasive” authority.
- Determine valid case law using “Shepards”.
- Assist in writing a persuasive legal memorandum.
- Apply the rules of venue in both federal and state jurisdictions.
- Describe key elements of various civil pleadings, i.e.
complaints, answers, etc.
- Understand various discovery
mechanisms & their appropriate
usage.
- Apply the rules regarding admissibility of information
obtained through the discovery process, in a court of law.
- Describe basic rules of trial procedure.
- Describe basic
rules of evidence.
- Determine the appropriate appellate court
to which a verdict can be appealed.
- Describe the standards
for review appellate courts use in various situations.
- Describe the requirements for certification of a class
action suit.
- Determine whether a class action is appropriate
in various hypothetical situations.
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HIS-152
Although concepts in constitutional law do not often manifest
themselves in the everyday practice of law, a basic understanding
of the foundation on which our entire legal system is built
is vital to a student's legal education. This course will
provide our students with a general understanding of the
major issues in constitutional law, including the separation
of powers between the executive, legislative and judicial
branches of the federal government; federalism and states’ rights,
the concept of interstate commerce; freedom of speech (the
First Amendment); substantive and procedural due process;
and the equal protection clause; various areas of discrimination. Perhaps the portions of the Constitution most relevant to the
everyday practice of law are those sections of the Bill of Rights
which deal with criminal procedure and litigation. Therefore, this
course will especially focus on the rights of a criminal defendant.
The areas to be highlighted on will include: the Fourth Amendment’s
protection against unreasonable searches and seizures by the police;
the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments’ guarantees of “due
process” for an alleged criminal; the Sixth Amendment’s
guarantee of the right to counsel along with the landmark case of
Miranda v. Arizona; and the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition
of cruel and unusual punishment.
Course Objectives:
At the completion of this course, the student will be
able to:
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BUS-205
Anyone who works in the legal profession, whether attorneys or paralegals,
must have a fundamental understanding of the professional codes of
conduct and laws dealing with the ethical obligations of members of
the legal profession. This course covers the basic principles governing
the ethical practice of law for both lawyers and paralegals, provides.
In addition, students with the necessary tools for identifying and
resolving ethical problems, and gives practical tips to implement
use in everyday practice. The areas that will be covered in this course
include the regulation of attorney and paralegal conduct, confidentiality,
the unauthorized practice of law, conflicts of interest, the handling
of client funds, advertising, billing, fee splitting, disciplinary
procedures and malpractice. Although this course will provide students
with an understanding of the universal concepts of professional responsibility,
each jurisdiction has its own minor variations on these concepts.
Therefore, students are also encouraged to explore their local rules
of professional conduct.
Course Objectives:
At the completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Research ethical rules by utilizing the American Bar Association’s “Model
Rules of Professional Conduct.”
- Access the rules of professional
conduct that are applicable in any jurisdiction throughout
the country.
- Describe the role of the paralegal vis
a vis the attorney that he or she is working under.
- Apply
the distinction between "practicing law" and performing tasks
permitted to a paralegal in order to avoid “unauthorized
practice of law.”
- Describe the process through which
a paralegal determines what client information is to be classified
as confidential.
- Describe when, to whom, and in what manner
confidential client information may be disclosed.
- Determine
the point at which an attorney-client relationship has been
formed.
- Describe the duties of zeal and loyalty that legal
professionals owe to their clients.
- Describe the various factors that constitute
a “conflict
of interest.”
- Apply the ethical rules regarding the "business
of law"; i.e., promotion and advertising.
- Assess whether a fee
charged by a law firm is reasonable or an unethical overcharge.
- Describe the rules governing proper communication with the
presiding judge.
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BUS-113
The Domestic Relations component of this course surveys various
issues pertaining to family law, including the marital relationship,
divorce, alimony and other forms of support that can result
from divorces, equitable distribution of property, and child
custody. We will also focus on recent decisions and legislation
that have had profound impact on relatively modern issues and
trends, such as legitimacy and status, "palimony," the rights of unmarried parents, "surrogate" parents,
and no-fault divorce. The Immigration Law component of the course is designed to provide
an understanding of the main areas of U.S. immigration practice.
The course reviews statutory provisions, administrative regulations
and case law as they relate to the key concepts of legal and illegal
immigration, including admission procedures, exclusion, deportation,
political asylum and citizenship.
Course Objectives:
At the completion of this course, the student will be able
to:
(Domestic Relations component)
- Analyze a pre-nuptial agreement with standard clauses.
- Describe
the basis upon which pre-nuptial agreements can be challenged.
- Describe
the requirements for marriage in most states.
- Determine
whether a valid marriage exists in a particular hypothetical
scenario.
- Describe the rules of the commencement
and dissolution of parental rights.
- Describe and apply
the rules of custody of biological children, adoption and
the termination of parental rights.
- Apply the all important “best
interest of the child” standard.
- Describe the prevalent
grounds for divorce under the law of most jurisdictions,
both in terms of “fault” and “no-fault” grounds.
- Apply the rules of martial property
upon divorce and the rules regarding child support.
- Research
family law rules in any jurisdiction around the country.
(Laws of Immigration component)
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Explain how the United States Citizenship
and Immigration Service (“USCIS”) operates and how
it is structured.
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Describe the nature of the
relationship between the USCIS, FBI, Department of Justice and
the Department of Homeland Security.
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Research the components
of the Immigration and Nationality Act (“INA”)
that may be relevant to a particular fact pattern.
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Prepare
various immigration related forms. This includes knowing how
to seek out, download, and fill out appropriate forms from
various government websites.
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