Legal Research and Writing: A Practical Approach for Paralegals - Softcover

O'Neill Jr., Robert

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0133808645 ISBN 13: 9780133808643

Publisher: Pearson, 2017

Synopsis

For courses in legal research and writing.

A comprehensive - yet very understandable - step-by-step approach to legal research and writing.

Legal Research and Writing: A Practical Approach for Paralegals introduces students to the process of legal research and writing with a very readable, yet thorough, step-by-step approach. Students will become proficient in legal research through easy-to-understand text and helpful visual aids, the application of learned concepts to a recurring case study, as well as many practical and engaging problems and fact-based exercises.

Utilizing both print and online sources, students will learn how to conduct legal research with maximum results. The text provides a unique guided approach to Westlaw(R) and Lexis(R) instruction and a comprehensive case study where students must apply the skills they've learned throughout the course. They will learn where to find the law, as well as how to effectively read, understand, analyze, and apply the law to any given fact pattern. In addition, detailed instruction is provided on the rules for quality writing and the important and practical skills of legal analysis, proofreading, editing, and cite-checking. In short, this book will equip the student with all the necessary tools needed to complete any basic legal research assignment.

About this title

Review

"I love the comprehensive case studies! This is one of my favorite things about the book! It's a great hands-on method of teaching research. I believe the author has done it in both an engaging and straightforward manner that students will find appealing." - Sonia Toson, Kennesaw State University, Atlanta, GA

"The practical problems are an appropriate inclusion in this text. They help to affirm the broad range of tasks assigned to paralegals and the dedication to detail that paralegals must have in the real world." - Deborah Hoffman, Columbus State Community College, Columbus, OH

"My community college students could very easily understand this work. The writing level for my students is great! Not too easy but not too difficult." - Lisa Robinson, Central Carolina Community College, Raleigh, NC

"I love the smoothness and the quality of writing. I teach at the vocational associate and bachelor level and feel that the book would and could raise the bar (that I love) but at the same time needs to accommodate the current needs and level of the quality of the student." - Carina Aguirre, Everest College and Platt College, Fontana, CA

"I think it is perfect for paralegal students. The author really has a feel for what students know, as well as what they need to know, and he writes in a style and at a level that will engage the students and make them want to read the chapter materials." - Steve Dayton, Fullerton College, Whittier, CA

About the Author

Robert P. O'Neill Jr., J.D., is a lawyer and professor who began his legal career at the District Attorney's Office in Philadelphia, beginning as a volunteer and later employed as a paralegal in various units within the office. Thereafter, he accepted an invitation to study law in Pittsburgh where he earned his Juris Doctorate at Duquesne University. While enrolled in his legal studies, he utilized and sharpened his research and writing skills as the senior law clerk at a large defense litigation firm. There, he performed legal research on complex issues on a daily basis and wrote numerous defense briefs and memorandums for multiple attorneys in the areas of workers' compensation, federal civil rights, municipal law, and personal injury law.

He later returned to Philadelphia and became an adjunct professor of paralegal and pre-law studies at Drexel University. He created and taught Legal Research and Writing and Advanced Legal Research and Writing, as well as assisted in restructuring the Paralegal Studies Minor Program. During that time, he also served as a judicial clerk in the First Judicial District of Pennsylvania, where he has clerked in the homicide, felony, and family courts. He has engaged in hundreds of hours of legal research and drafted more than 80 judicial opinions to the Superior Court of Pennsylvania, as well as three death penalty opinions to the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. He also has mentored numerous undergraduate and law school interns providing basic instruction in legal research and writing. He has volunteered his time at numerous legal interest events, and served as a student mentor at his law school. Legal Research and Writing: A Practical Approach for Paralegals is his first published work. He currently resides in Philadelphia.

Edition details

• Publisher: Pearson
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 0133808645
• ISBN 13: 9780133808643
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 456