Course Descriptions

LAW 267 - Civil Litigation
Provides students with the knowledge, skills and practice performing the duties of the litigation paralegal. Through the use of case simulations, students learn to gather, review, index and summarize documents, and to work with the lawyer and legal secretary to manage case files through pretrial, trial and post-trial stages. Guided by federal and New York State procedural laws, and rules and regulations of New York and local court rules, students learn to draft common litigation correspondence, notices and legal documents. These include summons, complaints, answers, motions, affidavits, subpoena, discovery documents, and orders. Students are introduced to the tools used in litigation: manual and computer-based document control systems, deposition exhibitions cross-reference mechanisms, trial notebook categories, trial witness coordinating forms, and trial exhibits tracking forms. Litigation tasks in this course form the foundation for paralegal litigation responsibilities in family law, real estate, debtor/creditor law, criminal law, and personal injury law. Also introduced in this course are automated litigation support systems and an overview of the potential areas for paralegal participation on document production. 3 Credits.

Prerequisite(s): Pre-requisite or co-requisite PLS 260, or permission of instructor.