CILEx Level 6 Unit 23 Legal Research Skills
CILEx Level 6 Unit 23 Legal Research Skills - £375
This advanced course will improve your legal research skills and teach you how to research the current law on a complicated legal topic that you have not covered in your academic studies. This web page covers the content of the course - information on how our supported distance learning courses are delivered is given on the CILEx Level 6 professional skills courses page.
By completing the CILEx Level 6 Legal Research Skills course you will gain applied skills using books and web-based sources with the objective of resolving a client problem. The research tasks are based on seven practice areas, one of which you choose according to your own interest. The areas are:
- Civil Litigation
- Company and Partnership Practice
- Conveyancing
- Criminal Litigation
- Employment Practice
- Family Practice
- Probate Practice
You will be given a complicated and unusual 'client' problem and you will learn how to conduct research to find the current law that would apply, how to apply the law to your facts and how to write a report showing your legal references.
Who is the course for?
This essential course is a compulsory part of the final stage of training for all prospective Chartered Legal Executives. It is also strongly recommended if you are:
- a Chartered Legal Executive who qualified before professional skills was a compulsory part of the ILEX training route
- a senior paralegal with a law degree but no formal professional training, who would like to improve legal research skills.
What qualification will I get?
This course does not amount to a qualification on its own, although success in the unit does contribute to the CILEx Level 6 Professional Diploma in Law and Practice or the CILEx Level 6 Legal Skills Certificate which are both listed on the national database of accredited qualifications for England and Wales.
What is the detailed course content?
Please click on the link to see the CILEx syllabus content expressed in terms of broad learning outcomes as well as the detailed knowledge, understanding and skills that are delivered by the course. ITC publishes a course manual every year to deliver the CILEx syllabus and the table of contents (2011 edition) is reproduced below. You can also view sample pages from the course manual.
Chapter 1: Introduction to Legal Research
1.1 Introduction
1.2 What is legal research?
1.3 Importance to legal practice
1.4 Stages of legal research
1.5 Some initial "dos and don’ts"
1.6 Summary
Chapter 2: Legal Research Resources
2.1 The law library
2.2 Sources of law
2.2.1 Primary sources
2.2.1.1 Legislation
2.2.1.2 Case law and Practice Directions
2.2.2 Secondary sources
2.3 Legal research resources
2.3.1 Hard copy resources
2.3.1.1 Case reports
2.3.1.2 Encyclopaedias
2.3.1.3 Practitioner’s texts
2.3.1.4 Journals and articles
2.3.1.5 Textbooks
2.3.1.6 Legal dictionaries
2.4 Electronic resources
2.4.1 LexisLibrary
2.4.1.1 Halsbury’s Laws of England
2.4.2 Lawtel
2.4.3 Westlaw
2.4.4 Internet resources
2.4.4.1 University resources
2.4.4.2 Professional bodies
2.4.4.3 Campaign groups
2.4.4.4 Government websites
2.4.4.5 Free legal resources
2.4.4.6 Google, Wikipedia and other shortcuts
2.5 Evaluating sources
2.6 Summary
Chapter 3: Analysing a Client’s Problem
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Facts
3.3 Objectives
3.4 Issues
3.5 Devising search terms
3.6 Summary
Chapter 4: The Research Process
4.1 Where to start
4.1.1 Indexes
4.1.2 Searching an electronic resource
4.1.2.1 Boolean searching
4.2 Reading sources
4.2.1 Updating
4.3 Making a record
4.3.1 How should the record be kept?
4.4 Common research problems
4.5 Primary sources
4.5.1 Reporting primary sources
4.6 Summary
Chapter 5: Reporting Legal Research
5.1 Coming to your conclusion
5.2 Advising on the law
5.3 Writing about legal research
5.4 Writing a memo or report
5.5 Writing a letter of advice
5.6 Summary
Application
Download: CILEx courses application form 2011-12.pdf
Or apply for this course online