The curriculum at our online paralegal school will provide you with a solid foundation of legal concepts and principles in the most important fields of law today.

The curriculum is designed with one goal in mind: prepare you for your working career. The vast majority of jobs for new paralegals are in the areas of litigation, corporate, real estate, personal injury/torts and trust and estates – these are the areas on which we will focus. Unlike many undergraduate programs, The Paralegal Learning Center's online paralegal school is designed to bring you and your new skills “to market” quickly.

The textbooks used at our online paralegal school are from West / Thomson Learning publishers. These proven texts are the same ones that are used in many college and professional schools throughout the country, and are regarded as among the finest available for paralegal training.

The following Course List describes each of the subject areas taught under the Certificate Program.

CONTRACTS – PLC101 Course Description: In Contracts, you will learn the basic principles of contract formation. You will also learn about contract enforceability, breach and remedies for breach, third-party interests and choice of law. This course will provide you with an exceptionally strong, substantive understanding of contracts.

BUSINESS ORGANIZATIONS / CORPORATIONS - PLC102 Course Description: In this course, you will learn about the corporation structure. You will learn about the benefits and limitations of this form of business organization, along with issues such as the rules and duties that govern corporate boards and officers, officer and board liability, corporate tax, shareholder voting, shareholder rights, etc. You will also gain a general understanding of other forms of business organizations, such as sole proprietorships, partnerships and limited liability companies.

CIVIL LITIGATION – PLC103 Course Description: Civil Litigation will provide you with a solid understanding of the fundamentals of litigation. You will learn about the judicial process, including the federal and state court structures, as well as the general principles that govern litigation. You will also study important topics such as jurisdiction, venue and discovery. You will also learn the basic elements of a summons, complaint, motion, brief and pleading.

REAL ESTATE – PLC104 Course Description: This course will examine the general theory of real estate transactions. You will learn about the historical development of real estate concepts. You will also gain a working knowledge of real estate contracts, deeds, mortgages and title reports. This is an extremely large area of the law in which many paralegals find employment.

TRUSTS AND ESTATES – PLC105 Course Description: This course provides both a theoretical and practical understanding of the laws of inheritance and estate planning. Some of the areas that will be covered include estate planning techniques, gifts and charitable transfers, life insurance as an estate planning tool and federal taxation issues.

PERSONAL INJURY LAW / TORTS – PLC106 Course Description: In this course you will learn the basic theory of tort law. You will learn to evaluate types of liability, and you will become familiar with the concepts of injuries and damages. In this course, we will cover the topic of negligence in depth, and we will cover a variety of other topics such as intentional torts, strict liability and products liability, nuisance and agency.

PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITY AND ETHICS – PLC107 Course Description: This course covers the basic principles governing the ethical practice of law for both lawyers and paralegals. You will learn about the unauthorized practice of law, conflicts of interest, advertising, billing, fee-splitting, confidentiality, paralegal-client relations, disciplinary procedures, and misconduct in the law office.

LEGAL RESEARCH AND WRITING – PLC108 Course Description: This course will cover the basic principles of legal writing and analysis. You will learn to write in a legal, analytical style. You will also learn how to conduct legal research and how to brief legal issues. In this course, students learn to use the online research tool from Lexis/Nexis®. In addition, more traditional, book-based research methods will also be reviewed.