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Syllabus

Legal Ethics
LA136

YEAR:

2023-2024

CREDIT HOURS:

3.00

PREREQUISITES:

None

COREQUISITES:

None

COURSE NOTES:

None

CATALOG COURSE DESCRIPTION:

Overview of rules and laws governing ethical legal obligations oriented to paralegals and professional paralegal practices. Topics include confidentiality, conflicts of interests, attorney-client and work product privilege, authorized practice of law, interviewing, investigations, records collection and communication skills.

HutchCC INSTITUTION-WIDE OUTCOMES:

  1. Demonstrate the ability to think critically and make reasonable judgments by acquiring, analyzing, combining, and evaluating information.
  2. Demonstrate the skills necessary to access and manipulate information through various technological and traditional methods.
  3. Demonstrate effective communication through reading, writing, listening, and speaking.
  4. Demonstrate effective interpersonal and collaborative skills.
  5. Demonstrate effective quantitative-reasoning and computational skills.

AREA OR PROGRAM OUTCOMES

  1. Effectively communicate in a proper, professional manner using appropriate terminology in oral, written and non-written forms.
  2. Describe and differentiate specific areas of law, i.e., litigation, torts, will and trusts, criminal law, real estate law and family law.
  3. Perform legal research using up-to-date and current software programs available for legal research.
  4. Use computers, databases, spreadsheets and software programs in a legal setting.
  5. Draft legal documents using correct legal terminology.
  6. Make appropriate ethical decisions in a legal setting.

COURSE OUTCOMES AND COMPETENCIES:

  1. Examine the legal and ethical guidelines that govern paralegals and attorneys.
    1. Outline the history and growth of the paralegal profession from inception.
    2. Describe current certification and potential licensing of paralegals.
    3. Compare the duties of licensed attorneys and paralegals working under the supervision of licensed attorneys.
    4. Summarize the history of voluntary certification of paralegals.
    5. Identify nonlawyer legal service providers.
    6. Evaluate state guidelines for the utilization of paralegal services and their code of ethics.
  2. Examine the unauthorized practice of law as it relates to paralegals.
    1. Explain the history of the unauthorized practice of law and identify recent UPL history and how it relates to nonlawyer legal services providers.
    2. Define the practice of law.
    3. Discuss the attorney's responsibility as it relates to paralegals and preventing the unauthorized practice of law.
    4. Describe the appearing in court, giving legal advice, setting fees and how paralegals establish the attorney-client relationship.
    5. List paralegal tasks that may constitute the unauthorized practice of law.
    6. Reflect upon the role of a paralegal before an administrative agency.
    7. Explain the importance of defining your job title and status in a paralegal role.
    8. Evaluate the dangers of paralegals working as independent contractors.
  3. Define the principle of confidentiality as it relates to the paralegal profession.
    1. Define attorney-client privilege.
    2. Analyze attorney-client privilege as it applies to paralegals.
    3. Identify matters not covered by the attorney client privilege.
    4. Explain how inadvertent disclosures of privileged information can affect the paralegal.
    5. Explore the exceptions to the privilege and permissive disclosure.
    6. Describe how privilege differs in the corporate versus public sector.
    7. Determine work product and privilege in a paralegal role.
    8. Define rules of confidentiality as it applies to paralegals.
  4. Outline conflicts of interest as it relates to the legal profession.
    1. Describe attorneys and paralegals as witnesses.
    2. Identify potential conflicts of interest in relationships with clients.
    3. Establish the meaning and importance of a conflict check.
  5. Describe the importance of attorney fees and client funds.
    1. Compare and contrast the difference between fixed fees, contingency fees, hourly fees and alternate fee arrangements.
    2. Outline billing for paralegal time.
    3. Explain ethics rules as related to attorney fees.
    4. Compose the terms and of fee arrangements with clients.
    5. Define fee splitting, referral fees and partnerships between lawyers and nonlawyers.
  6. Define paralegal competence & professionalism.
    1. Explain how to promote paralegal education.
    2. Identify competence as it relates to knowledge, skills, preparation, diligence, promptness and communication with clients.
    3. Identify possible sanctions for paralegal incompetence.
    4. Research current developments in legal malpractice.
    5. Identify paralegal commitment and standards of ethical conduct.
    6. Evaluate the paralegal commitment to excellence and strong work ethics.
    7. Demonstrate effective legal research and interviewing methods and the application of ethical considerations related to an interview.
    8. Define the meaning of paralegal pro bono work.

COURSE ASSESSMENT AND EVALUATION:

1. Chapter/mid-term/final examinations 2. Quizzes 3. Individual and group projects 4. Homework 5. Participation

ACCOMMODATIONS STATEMENT:

Any student who has a documented disability and wishes to access academic accommodations (per the 1973 Rehabilitation Act and Americans with Disability Act) must contact the HCC Coordinator of Disability Services, at 620-665-3554, or the Student Success Center, Parker Student Union. The student must have appropriate documentation on file before accommodations can be provided.

ACADEMIC HONESTY:

Education requires integrity and respect for HutchCC's institutional values. HutchCC students are required to maintain honesty through a "responsible acquisition, discovery, and application of knowledge" in all academic pursuits. Preserving and upholding academic honesty is the responsibility of Hut chCC students, faculty, administrators and staff.

I. Student Responsibilities

All HutchCC students are required to:

  • Submit all work in all courses without cheating, fabrication, plagiarism, dissimulation, forgery, sabotage, or academic dishonesty as defined below.
  • Provide all academic records such as transcripts and test scores that are free of forgery.
  • Refrain from participating in the academic dishonesty of any person.
  • Use only authorized notes and student aids.
  • Use technology appropriately, including refraining from submitting AI (Artificial Intelligence)-generated work without express written consent from your instructor.
  • Protect the security of passwords/login/privacy/electronic files, and maintain sole individual access for any online course information.

II. Definition of Academic Dishonesty

  • Academic dishonesty is any intentional act, or attempted act, of cheating, fabrication, plagiarism, dissimulation, forgery, or sabotage in academic work.
  • Cheating includes using unauthorized materials of any kind, whether hard copies, online, or electronic, such as unapproved study aids in any academic work, copying another student's work, using an unauthorized "cheat sheet" or device, or purchasing or acquiring an essay online or from another student.
  • Fabrica tion is the invention or falsification of any information or citation in any academic work, such as making up a source, providing an incorrect citation, or misquoting a source.
  • Plagiarism is the representation of words, ideas and other works that are not the student's own as being original to the student. A no n-inclusive list of examples includes work completed by someone else, work generated by an external entity (such as AI), omitting a citation for work used from another source, or borrowing the sequence of ideas, arrangement of material, and/or pattern of thought of work not produced by the student, even though it may be expressed in the student's own words.
  • Dissimulation is the obscuring of a student's own actions with the intention of deceiving others in any academic work, such as fabricating excuses for absences or missed assignments, or feigning attendance.
  • Forgery of academic documents is the unauthorized altering, falsification, misrepresentation, or construction of any academic document, such as changing transcripts, changing grades on papers or on exams which have been returned, forging signatures, manipulating a digital file of academic work, or plagiarizing a translation.
  • Sabotage is any obstruction or attempted obstruction of the academic work of another student, such as impersonating another student, stealing or ruining another student's academic work.
  • Aiding and abetting academic dishonesty is considered as knowingly facilitating any act defined above.
  • Academic honesty violations can also include the omission or falsification of any information on an application for any HutchCC academic program.

III. Sanctions for Academic Dishonesty

Students who violate the Academic Honesty Policy may be subject to academic or administrative consequences.

Instructor Sanctions for Violation:

Students suspected of violating the Academic Honesty Policy may be charged in writing by their instructor and any of the following may apply:

  • Assign Avoiding Plagiarism Bridge Module
  • Receiving written warning that could lead to more severe sanction if a second offense occurs
  • Revising the assignment/work in question for partial credit
  • Voiding work in question without opportunity for make-up
  • Reducing the grade for work in question
  • Lowering the final course grade
  • Failing the work in question

Institutional Sanctions for Violation:

Students charged with academic dishonesty, particularly in instances of repeated violations, may further be subjected to an investigation and any of the following may apply:

  • Instructor recommendation to the Vice President of Academic Affairs (VPAA) to dismiss the student from the course in which the dishonesty occurs
  • Instructor recommendation to the VPAA to dismiss student from the course in which the dishonesty occurs with a grade of 'F." Student will not be allowed to take a 'W' for the course
  • Instructor recommendation to the VPAA that the student be suspended and/or dismissed from the program
  • Student barred from course/program for a set period of time or permanently
  • May be recommended by the instructor (after documented repeated offenses) to the VP AA that the student be placed on probation, suspended and/or dismissed from the institution.

IV. Procedure

  • Instructor will communicate in writing via the student's HutchCC email account and/or LearningZone email account to the student suspected of violating the Academic Honesty Policy.  That communication may include sanction(s). Department Chair will notify the student's academic advisor upon receipt of the Academic Honesty Violation Form.
  • For each violation, the instructor will submit a completed Academic Honesty Violation Form to the Department Chair. Department Chair will notify the student's academic advisor upon receipt of the Academic Honesty Violation form.
  • Should the instructor choose to pursue institutional sanctions, the instruct or shall notify the student in writing via the student's HutchCC email account.  Instructor shall also submit a completed Academic Honesty Violation Form and all prior completed forms regarding said student to the Department Chair and the office of the VPAA with recommendation to proceed with specific Institutional Sanctions. Department Chair will notify the student's academic advisor upon receipt of the Academic Honesty Violation Form.
  • The decision of the VPAA on Institutional Sanction is final. The VPAA will notify the student's academic advisor of any institutional sanctions.

V. Due Process Rights

Students charged with violations of academic honesty have the right of appeal and are assured of due process through the Academic Honesty Appeal process.

Academic Honesty Appeal Process

I. Due Process Rights: Students charged with violations of academic honesty have the right of appeal and are assured of due process through the Academic Honesty Appeal process.

  • If an instructor has recommended course or program dismissal, the student may continue in coursework (provi ding there are no threatening or security behavioral issues) until appeal processes are concluded. However, if an issue has been documented at a partnership location (e.g., clinical sites, secondary institutions, correctional or military facilities), then the student is no longer eligible to continue participation in internships, apprenticeships, and/or clinical-based practice. For clinical sites, this sanction is immediate.

II. Process

If the student disagrees with the charge of a violation of academic honesty, the student has the right to due process as described in the Academic Honesty Appeal process below:

  • If the matter is not resolved upon communicating with the instructor about the violation, the student shall, within five business days of the issuance of the written notice of violation, submit a completed Academic Honesty Appeal Form and supporting documentation to the appropriate department chairperson to initiate an Academic Honesty Appeal.
  • Within two business days of receiving the student's completed Academic Honesty Appeal Form, the Department Chair and VPAA will review and the VPAA will render a decision.
  • Within two business days, a response will be sent to the student's HutchCC email address. The VPAA's decision is final.

INCOMPLETE GRADE:

Instructors may give a student a grade of Incomplete (I) under the following conditions:

  1. The student must initiate the request prior to the time final course grades are submitted to Records.
  2. The request must be made because of an emergency, illness or otherwise unavoidable life-event.
  3. The instructor must agree to the request before a grade of Incomplete can be submitted.
  4. A written contract between the instructor and student, signed by both, will document the work required and date needed to complete course work.
  5. If a student does not complete the course requirements within the time frame established by the instructor, a grade of "F" will be recorded on the student's transcript at the end of the next semester.

HLC ACCREDITATION:

Hutchinson Community College is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission (HLC). The Higher Learning Commission is one of six regional institutional accreditors recognized by the US Department of Education and the Council on Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA).

Last Revised: 12/10/2020