Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

This course will develop students' abilities to determine which areas of law are relevant to a particular factual situation and introduce letter writing and pleading.  Students will practice discerning the rule of law from primary sources.

Upon completion of the course students will be able to:

1. Draft simple legal documents with appropriate format and content by modifying standardized examples and analyzing hypothetical fact patterns.
2. Identify causes of action and apply the elements of substantive laws and the rules governing remedies in the context of dispute resolution.
3. Identify and describe special statuses created by relationships between entities.
4. Describe the procedural protections relevant to criminal prosecution.
5. Identify the elements of criminal offenses and apply them to fact scenarios.

Flexible dependent on needs of student population and preferred teaching style of instructor, but may include reading assignments; videos; lectures; guest speakers; small group projects and discussions; independent research; analysis of hypothetical problems; written reports; experiential learning; and student presentations.

May include attendance and participation in class activities, written assignments, tests, individual research and writing, drafting relevant legal documents, and analysis of legal issues.

Themes, Concepts & Issues

Students begin to build a repository of knowledge about particular areas of the law.

Students build drafting skills by modifying standardized examples.

Students build legal analysis skills by using primary sources to analyze hypothetical fact patterns to identify issues, potential causes of action, and facts necessary to drafting.

Competencies & Skills

1. Critically evaluate standardized examples for use in legal drafting.
2. Draft and format a legal pleading.
3. Identify relevant facts from a hypothetical fact pattern.
4. Identify elements of causes of action in a variety of civil law topics.
5. Identify elements of crimes and describe basic criminal procedure.

Approved Texts

Choice of texts is at the discretion of each course instructor, but instructors are encouraged to seek methods to reduce or eliminate student textbook costs.