Associate Degree in Legal Assistance

A legal assistant or paralegal is a person, qualified by education, training or work experience who is employed or retained by a lawyer, law office, corporation, governmental agency or other entity and who performs specifically delegated substantive legal work for which a lawyer is responsible.

The Associate of Arts - Legal Assistance at Ball State is a paralegal/legal assistant education program approved by the American Bar Association. It is a high quality academic degree program that provides students a strong curriculum and solid foundation for entry into the very competitive paralegal field. Program graduates are encouraged to continue on for their bachelor's degree. The program is also attractive to returning graduates with a bachelor's degree who desire to attain paralegal knowledge and expertise in an ABA-approved program. Paralegals, as members of the legal services team, work under the supervision of a lawyer. A paralegal may not provide legal services directly to the public, except as permitted by law.

Transfer students, in addition to other University requirements, must complete at least four of their legal specialty classes of three credits each at Ball State as approved by the Program Director.

ASSOCIATE IN ARTS--LEGAL ASSISTANCE, 67 hours

PREFIX NO SHORT TITLE CR HRS

General education, 19 hours

COMM	210	Fund Pub Com	3
ENG	103	Eng Comp 1	3
ENG	104	Eng Comp 2	3
HIST	150	West World	3
POLS	130	Amer Nat Gov	3
SOC	100	Principles	3
PEFWL			1

_____

19 hrs

Concentration area, 48 hours

ACC	201	Prin Acct 1	3
ISOM	125 229	Micro App IT Paralegals	3 3
BEOA	225	Micro App	3
BL	260	Prin Bus Law	3
BL	367	Estate Plan	3
POLS	141	Intro Parleg	3
POLS	142	Lgl Res Writ	3
POLS	143	Litigation	3

POLS	244	Adv Lgl Res	3
POLS	369	Prof Exp	3 - 6
	or
POLS	479	Pract Exp	3 - 6

POLS

455

Administ Law

POLS

457

Alt Dis Re

332

Legal Asp Re

6 hours from

CJC	351	Criminal Law	3
POLS	241	Family Law	3
POLS	347	Env Law Poly	3
POLS	443	Am Const Law	3
POLS	444	Const Libert	3

6 hours from

ISOM	112	Key Wp	3
ISOM	353	Inf Res Mgt	3
BL	363	Uni Code Law	3
CJC	101	Crim Jus Sys	3
CJC	102	Intro Crim	3
CJC	230	Inro Policg	3
CJC	341	Comm Correct	3
CJC	350	Crimnl Evdnc	3
CJC	351	Criminal Law	3
ECON	201	Elem Micro	3
ECON	202	Elem Macro	3
ECON	332	Labr Rel Law	3
EDPSY	355	Adult Psych	3
FIN	110	Pers Finance	3
RMI	270	Insurance	3
JOURN	325	Journ Law	3
POLS	140	Citizen Law	3
POLS	237	Stat Loc Pol	3
POLS	238	Urban Gov US	3
POLS	241	Family Law	3
POLS	347	Env Law Poly	3
POLS	431	Legislation	3
POLS	444	Const Libert	3
POLS	449	Land Use Reg	3
POLS	455	Administ Law	3
POLS	457	Alt Dis Res	3
PSYSC	224	App Bhr Anls	3
SOC	431	Gerontology	3

_______

67 hrs

Students qualifying for exemption from ENG 103 or 104 will receive credit for the course(s). ENG 101 and 102 may be substituted for ENG 103. A paralegal internship is required for any student who does not have current work experience in a professional legal setting.