Orientation Letters - Law - Spring 2016 
Subject: LAW
Section: 0375
Name of Class: Legal Research
Instructor: Jaime de la Garza, JD
Email: http://lamission.edu/~delagaje
Class website: https://myetudes.org/portal
Semester: Spring 2016
Class Starting Date: 2/8/16
Class Ending Date: 6/5/16
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Class Description:
Study of legal research including key search terms, precedents, citation format, finding cases, constitutions, statutes, regulations, ordinances, conducting, expanding and updating both federal and California legal research and reporting research results in various formats.
Textbook: http://lamission.edu/law/textbooks
Syllabus - Spring 2016 (under construction)
Student Learning Outcomes:
1. Brief law cases in including subject areas of the law from all of the other law classes in our paralegal program
2. Critically analyze and argue issues in case law, and learn the methods of finding and researching law cases. see http://profj.us/leganotes
This includes the following:
1. Primary and Secondary Sources of the Law
2. Overview of legal research
3. Steps to take in Case Law Research
4. Intro to Basic Legal Citation
5. Statsky Carthwheel and developing "legal language"
6. Getting background information
7. Refining the statement of the "Legal Issue"
8. How to develop a legal argument
9. Finding constitutions, statutes, regulations, and ordinances
10. Improve your legal writing
11. Finding cases
12. Expand and update your legal research
13. How to write a legal memo - sample
14. Final Legal Writing and Research Paper
3. Prepare a final legal research and writing paper. See format of the paper at http://profjordan.pbworks.com/format . The final research paper will be in the form of a position or argumentative paper. It will train the student in legal analysis, finding of law cases, and improving legal argumentation. The paper will be graded by using the following grading rubric -http://missionparalegal.pbworks.com/rubric-finalpaper
Students will read various law cases and write a case brief demonstrating their understanding and application of the essential facts and rules of law and legal principles of the case. see case brief rubric athttp://missionparalegal.pbworks.com/briefing
Initial Instructions for beginning of class: (cannot login until class starts)
Step 1: New student orientation video - http://usdegreeonline.wlac.edu/pages/129.asp
Step 2: Login at https://myetudes.org/portal
Step 3: login name is your student id # (example 881234567 (no spaces/dashes)
Step 4: Password is Month and Day of birthday: EX. : Jan. 14 then is "0114" - once you login, you will create a more secure password
Step 5: any problems - follow steps to reset password/update your account/submit help request - http://lamission.edu/online
Useful links: http://lamission.org - http://lamission.edu/law -http://lamission.edu/law/pathways
Student Services: http://lamission.edu/de/student-services
Management of Stress and Mental Health
DSPS - http://lamission.edu/dsps