Paralegal Today: The Essentials

The definative, briefer text for new paralegal students, West's Paralegal Today: The Essentials, provides the balanced coverage today's instructors desire without the substantive law. The theoretical foundation is balanced with practical career information, skill building activities, and the very latest in legal technology. All this is presented with carefully researched pedagogy to help the learning process for all kinds of students. A full range of paralegal topics is covered such as computer-assisted legal research, certification, paralegal specialities, communicating with clients, and professionalism.

This text takes a completely different approach to teaching paralegal skills in the classroom, bridging the gap between classroom learning and on-the-job realities. The authors carefully designed the full-color text and features to give students a glimpse of the types of situations and demands that they may encounter as professional paralegals. Students will become proficient in all the fundamental areas of paralegal studies and substantive law while studying this comprehensive text. All of the basic areas of paralegal studies are covered in this book such as careers, ethics, professional responsibilities, pretrial preparation, trial procedures, criminal law, legal interviewing, investigation, legal research, computer-assisted legal research, legal analysis, and legal writing. Exercises at the end of each chapter provide students with opportunities to apply the concepts and skills discussed in a variety of different formats. The text has been fully updated to reflect changes in the law and trends in the paralegal profession.