Upon successful completion of this course, a student will be able to:
1. Brief law cases in family law including issues in child custody, spousal and child support, jurisdiction, division of community property, and commingling of property.
2. Critically analyze and argue issues in family law those listed above in #1.
3. Prepare legal documents, forms or papers for a dissolution of marriage including summons, petition, response, income and expense declarations, and Order to Show Cause, Restraining Orders, Domestic Violence paperwork, and other judicial council forms in family law.
Students will read family 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 at http://missionparalegal.pbworks.com/briefing
Criteria: The “case brief” will achieve an “acceptable” or higher rating, and will be indicative of a paralegal who is competent to work in a law office, state agency or with the courts.
Students will read a court case and write a “case brief” using the FIRACT method of case briefing (“Facts, Issue, Rule, Application and Conclusion”).
The assessment will be evaluated using the following rating scale:
(4) – Superior - comprehensive, very accurate, analytical, sophisticated logic, incisive, persuasive discussion of the facts, issues, rules, rationale, holdings, applications, and conclusions (Facts, Issue, Rule, Application, Conclusion, Take Home Mesage - "FIRACT" method)
(3) – Strong - generally convincing, sufficiently analytical and logical, covers well all of the parts of the FIRACT method for a case brief.
(2) – Acceptable – basic understanding, reasonable, unsophisticated but shows comprehension of the case and legal points, lacking mastery but still in control, limited scope, occasionally original, misses parts of the FIRACT method for a case brief.
(1) – Unacceptable - superficial, lacking understanding, non-academic, undigested, unfinished, missing the target, perfunctory, inappropriate to the assignment, poorly developed, does not follow FIRACT method for a case brief.
updated: 4/6/11