Each college or university has its own set of general education requirements. They may include courses in English composition, grammar, math, logic, philosophy, speech, communication, earth science, natural science, political science, history, sociology and humanities.
An introductory paralegal course should provide an overview of more advanced paralegal courses. A popular introductory paralegal text, "Paralegal Today: The Legal Team at Work, 5th Edition," does just that. The first section addresses career opportunities, the inner workings of a law office, ethics and professional responsibility, sources of American law, the court system and alternative dispute resolution. The second section covers legal research and analysis, online legal research, legal writing, pre-trial civil litigation, conducting interviews and investigations, trial procedures and criminal law and procedures. The final section tackles tort law, product liability, and consumer law; contracts and intellectual property; insurance law and real property; estates and family law; laws affecting business; and bankruptcy and environmental law.
Civil litigation is the substantive practice area most often required in a paralegal education program. "Civil Litigation, 5th Edition" is a popular textbook published in 2009. Its 16 chapters cover litigation and the paralegal; the courts and jurisdiction; preliminary considerations; investigation and evidence; initial pleadings; responses to the initial pleadings; motion practice; overview of the discovery process; depositions; interrogatories; physical and mental examinations; requests for documents; requests for admissions; settlements, dismissals, and alternative dispute resolution; trial techniques; and post-trial practice.
Every substantive legal practice area requires competency in legal research and writing. "Foundations of Legal Research and Writing, 4th Edition" is a textbook used for such a course, published in 2010. It deals with law and sources of law; legal reasoning and analysis; secondary sources and finding tools; and the judicial branch and cases. It goes on to cover primary sources; overview of the research process and ethical considerations; and computer-assisted legal research. Finally, it tackles introduction to legal writing; fundamentals of writing; the transmittal letter and client opinion letter; writing contracts; pleadings; the law office memo; the memorandum of law; and the appellate brief.
A paralegal curriculum may have a required stand-alone legal ethics course. In the alternative, it may choose to address ethics throughout its other required and elective courses. A paralegal ethics course or program should address the regulation of the legal profession, the unauthorized practice of law, confidentiality, conflicts of interest, advertising and solicitation, fees and fee sharing and other ethics issues.
Other required paralegal courses may include computer applications for paralegals, real property law, wills, trusts and estate planning, family law, and business and corporate law.