Paralegal Studies

The substantive goal of this course is to cover the basic principles of criminal law, including the common law of crimes as well as the Maine Criminal Code and the Model Penal Code. The methodological role of the course is that of statutory construction - the techniques of applying legislative enactments to varying fact situations in light of text, history, purpose and structural context. All of this will proceed with the underlying assumption that it is always necessary to judge rules of law according to their effectiveness and desirability.

A survey of civil litigation issues covering the concepts and procedural rules designed to proceed from the initial client interview through trial. The student will gain a basic understanding of federal and Maine procedural rules and substantive law. In addition, the student will learn about the following: types of litigation, negligence cases, collection cases, commercial litigation, preparation of pleadings, discovery and settlements.

This course introduces manual legal research including understanding legal citations, primary and secondary authorities, federal and state reporters, Shepardizing, and other research tools. Use of the Penobscot County Law Library is mandatory. Finally, students will explore the basic of legal writing including legal correspondence and legal memoranda.

Topics may vary from year to year, but will generally include a detailed treatment of defamation and privacy, and the torts relating to the intentional infliction of purely economic loss. Contemporary issues in the law of negligence (i.e. liability in negligence for purely economic loss; actions for wrongful birth and wrongful life); and new applications of the law of trespass, with implications for civil liberties and privacy; for regulating non-consensual medical procedures; and for intervening in abusive domestic relationships.

This course is designed in response to an area of the law that is growing, and offers students practical instruction to assist in their future job placements. The course treats the full range of modern dispute resolution from inaction through mediation, arbitration, litigation and private judging. Looking at the full range of conflict resolution options, class inquiry will focus on the selection of the appropriate resolution process for a given case. Class discussions and problem solving will follow a concept-example, concept problem, and concept example-problem format.

This course will explore the First, Second, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments of the Constitution through reading of case law and real life examples. Students will understand the arguments that exist for persons involved in civil and criminal matters from the Constitution.

This course introduces domestic violence law from an interdisciplinary perspective and offers a contemporary view of the criminal justice and paralegal experience with diverse forms of violence and populations. Comprehensive inclusion of violence perpetrated in a variety of gender and age relationships; dating violence; sibling abuse; rape and incest; child and elder abuse and neglect; male battering; lesbian and gay violence; and violence against women.

Study of the nature, development and exclusive nature of worker compensation and concepts. Topics include: arising out of employment, personal injury by accident, disease, employment status, specific inclusions or exemptions, benefits, employee and employer misconduct, third party action, adjective law, conflict of laws, insurance, and relation to other kinds of wage-loss protection.

In this experiential course, the student serves as an intern in a law-related work setting. This placement may be in the public or private sector and is governed by an agreement signed by the student and the internship director. The experience may be multidisciplinary, but should have a strong legal employment element. Students are expected to be sufficiently motivated to seek out their own placement site with some guidance from the internship director. *** This class can be repeated more than one time for additional credits.