Introduction

Legal Studies provides you with an analytical analysis of the procedures of law-making and the practices adopted for dispute resolution. After completing your Legal studies you would be in a good position to develop an understanding of the influence our legal system has upon the lives of citizens and the implications of legal decisions on the society. Legal studies will bring, along with these professional perfections, the knowledge of basic legal rights and responsibilities that you are supposed to bear as a citizen.

Students who are thinking for their studies in Legal and Paralegal programs are naturally quite enthusiastic. They are fetched to this program as a carrier like paralegal can be exciting, challenging, satisfying and productive as well.

Practicing the law is becoming more sophisticated, focused, more regulated, and more costly with time. Paralegals basically work as assistants to lawyers and help them in the delivery of legal services. The paralegals are adept in handling the legal matters and understand in detail the procedural law. However the work of the paralegal is restricted to assistance to the attorneys only. Paralegals do not directly tackle the legal concerns independently and do not give legal advice to people on legal matters.

In 1997 the American Bar Association (ABA) explicitly defined the professional duties of a paralegal as “A legal assistant or paralegal is a person qualified by education, training or work experience who is employed or retained by a lawyer, law office, corporation, governmental agency or other entity who performs specifically delegated substantive legal work for which a lawyer is responsible.”

Job Opportunities

On successfully completing your Legal and Paralegal studies, there are a number of career opportunities for you. In case of Paralegal you may appear in law firms or work as assistants to individual lawyers. As per a recent survey conducted by the US Labour Department, job opportunities for the paralegal professionals are increasing more and more.

While the Legal people are more and more chosen as the most successful and cost-efficient method of practicing law, you can run your own law firm or you can get into a already successful force to enjoy the winning profession.

You also carry a good chance to master or specialize in a variety of available branches of law to achieve even higher rank in less time.

Course map for Legal Studies

The courses offered for Legal and Paralegal students provides an insight and then absolute understanding of ever-changing legal issues that continue to keep on re-shaping themselves with passage of time. You will be taught to analyze and master the dynamic nature of our lawmaking bodies and procedures, and discover how legal activities map the values and direction of any society.

During your Legal and Paralegal degree, you will practice the traditional, current and expected upcoming workings legal system; along with a comprehensive overview and comparison international legal structures and procedures.

Practice, abilities, as well as knowledge, play a key role in the study of Legal Studies. You will learn to identify, collect and process data from a range of sources; use the inquiry process to develop legal reasoning; apply legal reasoning to real or hypothetical cases and develop informed opinions.

Courses mainly taught in Legal studies may include Criminal law and justice, Introduction to Legal Concepts, Environmental Law, Medical Malpractice, Commercial & Banking Law, Real Estate Procedures, Legal Interviewing and Investigation, Case Analysis and Writing, Legal Ethics, Law-making, Dispute resolution and many other specialized courses as well.

Programmes and Course Map for Paralegal Studies

Legal studies programs were available in prospects since long, however, the popularity of the paralegal assistants, have compelled educational institutions to design various programmes which meet the demands of the profession. Currently, there are almost six hundred educational programmes in the United States academia only. Programme structure, procedures being followed and the time duration vary, depending on that particular programme and / or institute. Along with traditional schools, colleges and universities of the public and private sector, there are many online colleges and universities conducting educational programmes in paralegal studies. The online educational institutions have the flexibility to accommodate students from diverse backgrounds and offer maximum independence to the students to adjust their time schedule with the institutions.

Paralegal studies comprise of two-year and four year degree at associate level. Courses offered in these degrees mainly focus on general education as well as academic courses based on law education. Popular degrees in this regard are Associate of Applied Science in Paralegal Studies, Associate of Arts Degree – Paralegal and Associate in Science degree in Legal Assistant / Paralegal.

Online universities offering Paralegal degrees generally offer four-year programme sliced   into 120 - 130 semesters called semester units. The curriculum contents consist of major and minor academic courses. The main concentration of the degree is obviously paralegal studies. The bachelor degree in paralegal studies is called baccalaureate. The most favorite online bachelor degrees are BS in Paralegal Studies, and Bachelor of Science in Legal Studies.

Few of renowned online universities also offer advanced degrees in paralegal studies, for example, MS in Paralegal Studies, that offer specializations in legal administration and legal studies. Other than associate, bachelor and master degrees, there are various kinds of certificates and diplomas are also available in paralegal studies that offer comparatively short term studies to gain the basic and more specialized paralegal learning.

What Legal and Paralegal Students Bear

When successfully completed, legal and paralegal degrees, you should be able understand principles of criminal law and apply them accordingly to justify a decision, along with capacity to analyze the procedures for the resolution of criminal disputes and how to achieve justice.