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Welcome to the Office of Lifelong Education! College for Kids > Professional Certificate Programs > Paralegal Certificate Program

Paralegal Certificate Program   

Westfield State University, in partnership with The Center for Legal Studies, offers a variety of online courses for students interested in pursuing a career as a paralegal or working in a law office.

    • Paralegal Certificate course
    • Advanced Paralegal Certificate Course
    • Employment Law Certificate Course
    • Legal Secretary Certificate Course
    • Legal Nurse Consultant Training Course


New flexible payment options now available for those that qualify! Please see the announcement and website for more details.


Paralegal Certificate Course


This intensive, nationally acclaimed program is designed for beginning as well as advanced legal workers. Students will be trained to interview witnesses, investigate complex fact patterns, research the law, prepare legal documents, and assist in preparing cases for courtroom litigation. The instruction is practice-oriented and relates to those areas of law in which paralegals are in most demand.

Sessions include:

     •Legal Terminology, Documents, Ethics, and the Litigation Process
     •Introduction to the Evidentiary Predicate
     •Identifying Relevant Authority
     •Introduction to Legal Research
     •Legal Research Practice
     •Legal Writing and Appellate Procedure

There are no prerequisites to take the course, but students will be expected to complete a significant amount of homework for each session. This program will help students increase their office's efficiency, productivity, and billable hours as well as learn new marketable job skills.

Alumni and enrolled students who reach 60% completion of this program will also receive access to the Career Resource Center. Read the Paralegal Studies Career Guide for more information.

For more information or to register for this course, visit The Center for Legal Studies website by clicking HERE!


Advanced Paralegal Certificate Course



Students must complete six of the following fourteen topics in order to earn the Advanced Paralegal certificate. Topics may be taken individually.

Topics include:

     •Bankruptcy Law
     •Victim Advocacy
     •Advanced Legal Research
     •Alternative Dispute Resolution
     •Business Law and Practices
     •Estate Planning: Probate, Wills & Trusts
     •Criminal Law
     •Family Law
     •Constitutional Law and Civil Liberties
     •Water Law
     •Immigration Law
     •Education Law
     •Criminal Procedure
     •Intellectual Property

For more information or to register for this course, visit The Center for Legal Studies website by clicking HERE!


Employment Law Certificate course


Employment law is a branch of contract law that deals with relationships between employers and employees. This course will cover statutes such as the National Labor Relations Act, the Railway Labor Act, and other various statutes dealing with public employees. Topics to be included are master and servant, wages and hours, anti-discrimination in employment and minimum wages and maximum hours, as well as regulation of working conditions.

For more information or to register for this course, visit The Center for Legal Studies website by clicking HERE!


Legal Secretary Certificate Course


This intensive program is designed for both beginning and experienced secretaries who are interested in improving their skills and working more efficiently within the law office. Students will study such topics as: legal terminology; legal process; jurisdiction and venue; ethics; written communications including letters, pleadings, discovery, notices and motions; filing procedures, billing and accounting; time management; records management; overview of commonly used word and data processing programs; legal research; memoranda preparation, and citation format.

Students will receive an introduction to the theory of law, the legal process, and the nature of the practice of law. Discussion will include the process of law as well as the specific legal terminology. Ethics are also covered.Also addressed are the particulars of law office management and technology in the law office. Students will be exposed to actual court documents and will prepare some of these documents as part of their homework.Time will be spent examining the intricacies of the law office, including office procedure manuals, billing techniques, and overall management techniques of the law office. Students will also be introduced to the basics of legal research and proper citation format. Job search strategies and placement possibilities will also be discussed.

For more information or to register for this course, visit The Center for Legal Studies website by clicking HERE!


Legal Nurse Consultant Training Course


This exciting program prepares medical professionals for a career in the legal field as legal nurse consultants. Building on your medical education and possible clinical experience, this course provides the RN and PA with fundamental skills necessary to advise law firms, health care providers, insurance companies, and governmental agencies regarding medically related issues and to appear in court as expert witnesses. The course teaches legal concepts related to the health care industry, as well as the role a legal nurse consultant might play in litigation areas such as medical malpractice, toxic torts, product liability, personal injury, wrongful death, criminal law, and workers’ compensation. Any RN or PA interested in entering the legal field can benefit from the education provided by this course. The course is also open to anyone interested in the field of forensic testimony and medical-legal issues, but participants without an RN or PA background might not be able to take the LNCC exam after graduation. Legal Nurse Consultant Certified (LNCC) is a discretionary test separate from this training course that experienced registered nurses graduating from this course may decide to sit for. LNCC test eligibility requirements are discussed during this training course; however, RNs graduating from this course need not take the LNCC in order to practice as legal nurse consultants.

This nursing continuing professional development activity was approved by the Colorado Nurses Association, an accredited approver by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation. Successful graduates will receive a certificate for 42 contact hours of nursing continuing professional development from The Center for Legal Studies that they may be able to use to fulfill continuing education requirements.

For more information or to register for this course, visit The Center for Legal Studies website by clicking HERE!


 

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