Paralegal & Legal Assistant Program

Legal Office Procedures
This program is designed to give students a general overview of the Canadian legal system, with particular attention to legal documents and legal office procedures. Emphasis is placed on creating client files, billing and a variety of documents prepared to NB Standards. Document preparation includes general, family law, civil litigation, real estate, estate and corporate law.

Legal Research & Writing
Legal research is “the process of identifying and retrieving information necessary to support legal decision making”. Legal research includes each step of a course of action that begins with an analysis of the facts of a problem and concludes with the application and communication of the results of the investigation. This course is designed to give students a working knowledge of legal research and legal citation, including primary and secondary research, sources, real property searches, electronic search tools, legal writing and legal memoranda. Students are assigned a research project during the course and are required to prepare a legal memo for review.

Civil Litigation ; Employment Law ; Property Law ; Real Estate ; Family Law ; Criminal Law

Legal Transcription
This course is designed to give students a solid understanding of machine transcription. Emphasis is placed on mastering the dictation equipment, punctuation, accuracy and proofreading of transcribed documents. The course deals with the transcription of legal documents including letters, memos, reports etc.

Foundations of Law
This course is an introduction to law for paralegal students. The Canadian legal system, court structure, terminology, definitions and spelling of pertinent legal terms are the focus of this course.

Keyboarding/Outlook
The Keyboarding portion of this course is designed to assist students in mastering the alphabetic and numeric keyboard, speed and accuracy, and formatting of letters and memos. The Outlook portion of this course provides students with the skills, knowledge and confidence to utilize Microsoft Outlook. Students will learn to navigate the Outlook window, compose, reply and forward e-mail messages, add and delete attachments, flag messages, modify delivery options, create signatures, message settings and delivery options, organize, delete and print messages and contacts, create contact and distribution lists, create tasks and to-do lists and schedule appointments, meetings and events.

Microsoft Word
This course provides students with the skills and knowledge to utilize Microsoft Word. Students will learn to edit text, check spelling and grammar, print documents, work with document views, manage styles and utilize document themes, merge documents and data sources, insert quick parts in documents, utilize newsletter-style columns, work with comments and revisions, insert drawing objects and graphics, utilize smart art and insert headers and footers.

Advanced Word
Students will acquire the skills and knowledge to utilize Advanced Microsoft Office Word’s interface including creating and editing text and revising documents. Students will have the ability to create and manage professional documents using mail merge, macros, graphics, advanced tables, formulas, breaks, tabs, forms and subdocuments.

Microsoft Excel
This course provides students with the skills and knowledge to utilize Microsoft Excel. Students will learn to create a simple worksheet by entering labels and values, build a worksheet using copy and paste, fill and autofill, find/replace, column width and row height, hide columns and rows and copy cell formatting, insert and delete columns and rows, create formulas and use functions such as Average, Max, Sum, NOW, IF, Vlookup and Dfunction, filter databases using Auto Filter, Criteria and Extract, work with cell references including relative, absolute and mixed, format cells using number formats and changing alignment, use chart wizard to format, size, move, edit, save and print a chart, protect, save and print worksheets, charts and formulas.

Communications/Records Management
This course develops basic language and communication skills. Business letters, reports and interpersonal skills are addressed as communication becomes increasingly important in the shrinking global marketplace. Records Management is designed to instruct students in the use and design of alphabetic, numeric and geographical filing systems.

Advertising & Social Media
Students will receive an introduction to the fields of public relations and social media. Students are introduced to exciting and innovative public relations and social media campaign examples and will learn the theory and core concepts that they will need to succeed. Social media and public relations are evolving quickly and creating a level playing field for businesses of all sizes. We will also look at different elements of social media and how they can be used to market a business.

Manual Accounting
Students will be given a strong foundation in accounting fundamentals and a clear understanding of accounting terminology. Students will be prepared to enter the job market in an entry-level accounting position; will be able to understand the usefulness and importance of accounting procedures as business owners, managers and office workers.

Career Skills
Students will learn to showcase the specific skills and qualifications they bring to any position and company and how to select the best people as references. They will receive tips on filling out job applications and will create and perfect a personal resume and cover letter. Students will also learn the best ways to evaluate a job offer and important advice for success.