Train to work in a Legal Practice or Related Job

The legal and crime prevention industries are huge; and only a small proportion of people who work in these professions are lawyers. Everyone working in these industries still needs to understand legal language; have good communication and organisational skills and be able to interact with and support the overall purpose of the organisation they work in; whether a legal office, police, jail, court, security firm; or something else.

This course has been developed to build knowledge and skills that are valuable for support staff in all of these types of organisations.

This course is relevant for a wide range of situations from business and politics, to Law, Crime and Police.

Course Structure 

This course involves six modules, as follows:

Module 1 Office Practices
The course covers the following in 8 lessons:

1. The Modern Office: Scope of office work, procedures, the home office vs commercial premises, etc.
2. Communication Systems: Using the phone, business letters, faxes, couriers, postage, etc.
3. Interpersonal Communications
4. Phone Skills
5. Writing Letters and Other Documents:Writing Letters and Reports. Structure of a report, memos, business letters.
6. Computer Applications: Scope & uses of computers, types of computers, software types, peripherals, word processing, CD Roms, Modems, setting up and care of a PC.
7. Office Organisation and Procedures: Stationary, Office furniture, Paper specifications, Filing & record keeping etc.
8. Health and Safety in the Office: Office layout and organization, security. 

Module 2 Legal Terminology  

1. There are eight lessons in this module as follows:

1. Scope and Nature of Legal Terminology
2. The Legal Workplace –People & Processes
3. Legal systems –Australia, UK, International Law etc.
4. Contract & Business Law
5. Property Law - Buying & selling property, Conveyancing, Intellectual Property
6. Wills, Probate, Estate Law
7. Criminal Law
8. Other –Tort law, Family Law, Civil Actions, Bankruptcy, Insurance, Accidents Compensation

Module 3 Criminal Psychology 
There are ten lessons consisting of -

1. Introduction to Criminal Psychology
2. Psychological approaches to understanding crime
3. Psychology and understanding serious crimes
4. Mental disorder and crime 1 – Learning disabilities and crime
5. Mental Disorder and Crime 2 - Psychopathy
6. Gender and Crime
7. Youth and Crime
8. Psychology and the Police
9. Psychology in the Courtroom
10. Psychology and Crime Prevention 
    
     

Plus 3 of the following Modules:

Bookkeeping I 
There are 13 lessons as follows:

1. Introduction – Nature and Function of Accounting for Service Firms
2. Balance Sheet
3. Analysing and Designing Accounting Systems
4. The Double Entry Recording Process
5. Cash Receipts and Cash Payments Journal
6. Credit Fees and Purchases Journal
7. The General Journal
8. Closing the Ledger
9. Profit and Loss Statement
10. Depreciation on Non-current Assets
11. Profit Determination and Balance Day Adjustments
12. Cash Control: Bank Reconciliation and Petty Cash
13. Cash Control: Budgeting  
    
    

Information Security

1. Introduction to Information Security
2. Information Security Ethics
3. Data Integrity and Backing up
4. Vulnerabilities of Operating Systems and Information Systems
5. Risk Management
6. Information Security Technologies, Developments and Initiatives
7. Physical Security
8. Developing a security Policy
9. Implementing and revising a security policy
10. Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Planning
11. Information Security Maintenance

Technical Writing 

There are nine lessons in this module as follows:

1. Scope and Nature of Technical Writing
2. Presentation
3. Matching style and content to the audience
4. Planning: Developing a Logical Structure or Format
5. Collaborative Writing
6. Writing Technical Periodicals
7. Writing Manuals and Procedures
8. Writing Project Proposals
9. Writing Project Reports.

Certificate Duration:  600 hours

 UNDERSTANDING FAMILY LAW

The following is an extract of notes from our courses.

Family law encompasses marriage, adoption, divorce, custody, death, and estate planning. The latter two elements of family law were dealt with in the proceeding lesson. Collectively, Family laws are those laws dealing with matters of significant impact on family relationships, particularly adoption, divorce, custody, and abuse.

Family law courts generally hear cases pertaining to dissolution of marriage, legal separation of the parties, nullity of marriage, child custody, child and spousal support, elder law legal issues, domestic violence petitions, and estate planning cases like wills, will contests, guardianship, insurance, probate, trusts and other estate related legal issues.

SOME FAMILY LAW RELATED TERMINOLOGY

Decree nisi: A decree nisi is a decree granted by a court in the first instance for the dissolution of a registered marriage. It is an interim document issued prior to a decree absolute and refers to the legal condition: "not coming into effect unless a person or persons fail to show cause against it within a certain time".

De facto marriage: The relationship between two people who live together as a couple but are not registered as married to each other.

Emancipation: A legal process that gives a teenager legal independence from his or her parents or guardians.

Equitable adoption: Equitable adoption (also called putative or constructive adoption) occurs in the situation where a parent makes certain promises or acts in a certain manner so as to create a contract between the parent and child. Equitable adoption occurs without a formal legal procedure, in other words, a parent can say or do certain things that result in the adoption of another person as his/her child even though there is no court order establishing the adoption.

Adoption by estoppels: is a remedy that is available to a child, to claim adoption by the parent (in the above situation). If the parent died with a Will and the child was not mentioned in the Will, the child may still present a claim for a portion of the parent's estate on the basis of being an omitted or pretermitted child.

Interlocutory decree: A court judgment that is not final until the judge decides other matters involved in the case; or until enough time has passed to see if the interim decision is working. In the past, interlocutory decrees were most often used in divorces. The terms of the divorce were set out in an interlocutory decree, which would become final only after a waiting period.

Judgement nisi: Nisi is Latin for "unless." A judgment nisi is an intermediate judgment which will become final unless a party appeals or formally requests the court to set it aside. An interlocutory decree is properly referred to as a judgment nisi.

Miscegenation: A word invented by American journalists to discredit the Abolitionist movement by stirring up debate over the prospect of white-black intermarriage after the abolition of slavery. It refers to marriage or cohabitation between a man and woman of different races, especially in the U.S. between a black and a white person; interbreeding between members of different races; the mixing or a mixture of races by interbreeding. Contemporary usage of the term "miscegenation" is less frequent.

Cohabitation: A term used to describe when people live together in an emotionally and/or physically-intimate relationship. The term is most frequently applied to couples who are not married.

UNDERSTANDING BANKRUPTCY
The legal process in which a person or firm declares inability to pay debts. When the debt owed becomes beyond the possibility of repayment, the debtor faces insolvency or bankruptcy. Any available assets are liquidated and the proceeds are distributed to creditors. In a bankruptcy proceeding, an insolvent debtor can obtain relief from payment of certain obligations.

SOME BANKRUPTCY RELATED TERMINOLOGY
Creditors or Lender: A creditor is a party (i.e. person, organization, company, or government) that has a claim to the services of a second party; or it is a person or institution to whom money is owed. The term creditor derives from the notion of credit.

Credit: Is any form of deferred payment. The provision of resources (i.e. granting a loan) by one party to another party where that second party does not reimburse the first party immediately, thereby generating a debt, and instead arranges either to repay or return those resources or material/s of equal value at a later date.

Debtors or borrower: An entity that owes a debt to someone else.

Default: Occurs when the debtor has not met its legal obligations according to the debt contract.

UNDERSTANDING INSURANCE LAW
From the term to safe, to assure is to make safe, to pledge, to guarantee, or to insure. From to exact a pledge, to insure is to make safe in exchange for money, to guarantee the safety of something for money, to contract to pay a specified event occurs, or to contract for protection against a natural risk. Insurance law is the name given to practices of law involved with insurance, including insurance policies and claims.

SOME INSURANCE RELATED TERMINOLOGY
Actuary: An insurance professional skilled in the analysis, evaluation and management of statistical information. Evaluates insurance firms’ reserves, determines rates and rating methods, and determines other business and financial risks.

Adverse Selection: The tendency of those exposed to a higher risk to seek more insurance coverage than those at a lower risk.

Annuity: A life insurance product that pays periodic income benefits for a specific period of time or over the course of the annuitant’s lifetime. There are two basic types of annuities: deferred and immediate.

Arbitration: Procedure in which an insurance company and the insured or a vendor agree to settle a claim dispute by accepting a decision made by a third party.

Binder: Temporary authorization of coverage issued prior to the actual insurance policy.

Blanket Insurance: Describes coverage for more than one type of property at one location or one type of property at more than one location. For example, chain store.

Broker: An intermediary between a customer and an insurance company. Brokers typically search the market for coverage appropriate to their clients. They work on commission and usually sell commercial, not personal, insurance.

HOW DOES STUDY GET YOU A JOB?

Although doing a course may not guarantee you a job – it will set you apart from those that have not studied at all and it will improve your personal choices when applying for jobs.

Each job listed usually gets a huge amount of response – when employers choose people to interview they will look at a range of factors – what you have studied will be just one of those factors. You need to be able to catch a potential employer’s attention – stand out from the rest.

So what do employers look for?

• Great communication skills: verbal, written and also the ability to use a computer.
• Problem solving skills: thinking on your feet and working through problems in an orderly way.
• Efficiency: doing things in a logical order without compromising accuracy improves efficiency.
• Knowledge and skills demanded of the job.
• A passion for the work and willingness to learn.
• Presentation and grooming - people who present as being well organised and well-groomed will impress.

How Will A Course Help Me To Gain those Skills?

Choosing the right course will help i.e. one that develops knowledge, practical and also your problem solving skills. Not all courses do this. At ACS our courses focus on Problem Based Learning so this enables the student to develop these skills and at the same time using this learning method also improves you knowledge retention and recall.

What Can You do to Improve Your Career Prospects?

• Choose a course that you are passionate about – be open to learning and use this course to start building your future. Today we are expected to keep learning and studying in order to keep up with a world that is rapidly changing. Learning is a lifelong experience. Study a course that makes you stand out - a qualification that is different to all the other applicants will always catch the attention of a boss, and may be the difference between getting an interview or not.
• Network with people in the industry, attend conferences and trade shows – make yourself known to people in the industry in general.
• Try to build a range of skills – multi-skilled people catch the eye of the employer or potential employer.
• Write a good CV and ask for help if you need it. Tutors at this school will help our students with their C.V.'s if you ask -no cost. Resume Writing services can also be used, but they charge.
• Recognise your weaknesses and work on improving them - not just academically. And also know your strengths and demonstrate them.