Winter Classes!

[palsgraf_polka]

I just registered for my Winter Quarter classes. Legal Writing and Legal Research. I think they'll both be hard. But good news! Neither class is on campus! [does happy dance] One is at the law library in Santa Barbara, and the other is at the extension center which is right off the freeway.

Campus is a pain in the ass.

So, I'm excited! These classes will be so much more interesting than the ones this quarter. Although, yesterday for my Fundamentals of Paralegal Studies class we got to go down to the Ventura Law Library and we had to do a 20 item scavenger hunt in the books (no computers allowed). It was a blast. It would be a question like "What is the name of the case found at 52 Cal3d 1142?" And we would have to figure out what Cal was and where it was. It was so fun to thumb through old law books and find little nuggets of treasure.

I cannot wait until my legal research class. I'm all a twitter.

Comments

[iron-chef-gein.livejournal.com]

You know, of course, this is my bread & butter, right? What legal research text are you using?

[palsgraf-polka.livejournal.com]

I don't know which text for sure, but the same guy has taught it for at least 3 quarters and he used this text every time:

Foundations of Legal Research & Writing, 3rd edition, Carol M. Bast and Margie
Hawkins, Thomson Delmar Learning, ISBN# 1-4180-1395-1

Opinion? Here's the syllabus he used in Summer 2007.

http://spruce.xlrn.ucsb.edu/paralegal/SyllabusLR07.pdf

[iron-chef-gein.livejournal.com]

Bast & Hawkins is not my favorite. They often have a forest-tree problem when it comes to level of detail, and they mention a number of sources that really are no longer viable options while failing to cover some electronic sources that more people are using. I don't mean to sound like an elitist, but the authors are not associated with a law school or even an institution that has access to the very wide range of practicing and scholarly legal materials available in a larger academic legal collection. Then again, IMHO, there hasn't been a really good, thorough legal research text since the last edition of Price & Bitner, which is now almost 30 years out of date.

[palsgraf-polka.livejournal.com]

Do you have one that you would recommend to me as a supplement?

[iron-chef-gein.livejournal.com]

I use Berring & Edinger's Finding The Law, 12th ed., for my hardcore legal bibliography class, and Sloan's Basic Legal Research, 3rd ed., for the 1st years-- Sloan is more process oriented and is a departmental choice. I also like Oates' Just Research, and the old warhorse, Cohen & Olson's Legal Research In A Nutshell, which I believe is in its 9th edition.

[palsgraf-polka.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I added them to my Amazon wishlist to buy when I get a few extra dollars. I am really looking forward to this class.

[iron-chef-gein.livejournal.com]

A copy of Cohen & Olson will be in the next shipment of CDs.

[palsgraf-polka.livejournal.com]

Thank you! You are too good to me.