| |
Oct 05, 2024
|
|
|
|
|
LAW 2741 - Legal Skills to Provide Legal Assistance to Under-Represented Federal Litigants
This course provides students the opportunity to learn about the steps in the litigation process in federal court so that they can provide effective legal guidance to litigants who might be unrepresented or underrepresented. The class will focus on developing these skills in the context of employment discrimination and civil rights cases in federal courts. Students will further learn about access to justice issues faced by under/un-represented litigants in the federal courts, as well as ways to respond to their needs.
Students will acquire pre-trial skills including: client interviewing and counseling; drafting complaints and answers; understanding dispositive motions (motions to dismiss, judgment on the pleadings, summary judgments) and how to draft oppositions; learning about the discovery process, tools for discovery, and drafting discovery requests; and negotiation and settlement options and considerations.
Through the course, students will first acquire the skills necessary to understanding all these topics, via simulations and reviewing and drafting samples. Secondly, in learning the skills, students will also focus on learning how to explain these processes to lay people in simple, non-legalese language.
Students will develop skills to counsel clients while overcoming the obstacles that hinder effective communication with under/un-represented clients in a legal setting (e.g., cultural, economic, and educational differences, legalese). The course relies on extensive simulations, exercises and discussions through which students will strengthen their abilities to explain complex issues. After completing the course, students should be comfortable explaining the various stages of the litigation process in easily understandable ways. Students will, in essence, learn to teach what they learn.
Prerequisites & Notes
Mandatory for students signed up as externs for the Pro Se Legal Assistance Program, who may opt to take it to meet either the experiential or the writing requirement (not both). Open to all other students with instructor permission to fulfill the writing requirement.
Credits: 2
Add to Personal Catalog (opens a new window)
|
|