Real-world court decisions

Examine real-world court decisions pertinent to the topics that you will be studying. This is not a course designed to train lawyers, and you are not expected to be an attorney-in-training. However, you will be asked to do a substantial amount of independent research in the scholarly and professional resources of the field. You will be called upon to locate court cases relevant to the topics of contracts and torts and to write an analysis for each case. To help you get your research started, some prominent searchable databases of court cases have been recommended for you in the assessment resources. Try to imagine yourself as either the plaintiff or the defendant in the cases you review, to make these cases more meaningful to your life. Use the resources provided to familiarize yourself with the legal terminology as early as possible, in order to help you make sense of the legal language found in court cases. The terminology that you will learn in this course will be useful in both a scholarly and everyday context. Overview Contracts are the heart and soul of commercial transactions. Different types of contracts bind parties together in business dealings. Review contracts that you have signed recently—a lease, an employment agreement, an extended warranty—to examine not only the language but also the scope of these agreements. Examine the language in the contract that outlines how disagreements will be resolved, and the penalties that adhere to either party for breach of the contract. Preparation The first step in preparing your case law analysis is to locate a published court decision and select an organization you believe would be impacted by the decision.