Advanced Paralegal Certificate Course

Registration info

1. Bankruptcy Law
   Bankruptcy is an area of law that has provided significant employment for paralegals. This course examines the debtor-creditor relationship and the difference between voluntary and involuntary bankruptcy, both under Chapter 7 (liquidation) and 11 (reorganization). You will study the Bankruptcy Code in depth and learn how to prepare the most important bankruptcy forms.
   
   
2. Victim Advocacy
   This intensive online program is designed to train and qualify students to provide assistance to crime victims. The course provides an overview of criminal procedure and discusses the devastating effects crime can have on its victims. You will learn how paralegals as victim advocates can assist their office's clients who have been victimized by crime.
   
   
3. Advanced Legal Research
   Advanced and specialized approaches to utilize the legal resources available in a law library, and elsewhere, will be examined. The conceptual differences between computer-assisted legal research and hard copy research will be taught. You will also learn how to formulate WESTLAW search queries and effectively and efficiently use WESTLAW and other online legal research methods as timesaving devices in legal research and legal writing.
   
   
4. Alternative Dispute Resolution
   Alternative Dispute Resolution refers to dispute resolution techniques that may better suit the needs of parties than does traditional litigation. This intensive course is designed to train paralegals in the art of negotiation and participate in conflict mediation processes. Participants will review the growth and application of settlement options in the United States. The course focuses on both traditional and non-traditional dispute resolution options. Specific attention will be given to the tradition techniques of negotiation, mediation, and arbitration and more modern variations, such as summary jury trials and mini-trials. Topics include divorce settlement mediation and labor arbitration. The course will discuss the mediation process, the role of the mediator, and problems encountered in mediation and focuses on reaching reasonable solutions.
   
   
5. Business Law and Practices
   This course examines the law and practice of business organizations and the paralegal's potential functions in this area of law. It begins with an examination of basic agency law, followed by a study of the fundamental structure and most important legal doctrines relating to general partnerships, limited partnerships, limited liability companies, small closely-held corporations, and large publicly-traded corporations.
   
   
6. Estate Planning: Probate, Wills & Trusts
   This course explores the paralegal's role in estate planning. The requirements of creating enforceable wills and trusts will be covered, and study of resulting and constructive trusts will be provided.
   
   
7. Criminal Law
   The course begins with an overview of the concept of punishment and goes on to study the burden of proof and criminal defenses; it also provides a critical look at the most common crimes. Students will learn common terminology in criminal law and how to consider a crime thoroughly in terms of its elements.
   
   
8. Family Law
   Family law pertains to the formation and dissolution of domestic relations, including the law of marriage, annulment, separation and dissolution, maintenance, and custody and support of children. This course will study the differences between community and separate property, the classification of property, and the impact of such classification. The role of the paralegal in family law practice and the importance of mediation of domestic issues will also be discussed.

9. Constitutional Law and Civil Liberties
   You will be introduced to the fundamentals of the federal constitution, including the institution of judicial review, the limitations on federal judicial power, the constitutional roles of the legislative and executive branches, due process of law, and individual rights under the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Possible future trends of the U.S. Supreme Court will also be explored. This course will focus on individual civil liberties and 42 U.S.C. section 1983 claims, emphasizing redress for violations of the Fourth, Fifth, and Eighth Amendment rights of the U.S. Constitution.

10. Water Law
    This intensive class is designed to give students, particularly from Colorado and neighboring states, an appreciation of the importance of allocation of water resources in the American West.   Participants will learn of the common law and civil law approaches to the distribution of water in arid regions, the transportation of water from one basin to another, and a hierarchy of competing uses for the water.  Water was first viewed as an instrumentality of transportation (and the main impetus behind junking the Articles of Confederation in favor of the Constitution), later as power for industry, irrigation for agriculture, and the water resource behind the growth of cities of the American west.  Las Vegas and Phoenix, for example, would have been mere refueling stations on the transcontinental railroads were it not for massive water projects to make the desert bloom. Special emphasis will be given to Colorado's unique system of water courts and water judges. The knowledge gained in this course will be especially helpful for students studying Sociology, Criminal Justice, Psychology, Political Science, Criminology, and many other law related disciplines.

FEE: $1275   Registration info