Legal Writing III: Criminal Motions

Catalog description

7354. 3 hours. Legal Writing III is a required course that satisfies the Upper-Level Major Writing Requirement. UNT Dallas College of Law offers a variety of Legal Writing III courses that students can select based on their interest. All Legal Writing III courses are designed to give students experience drafting multiple writing assignments and engaging in the process of rewriting each of the major assignments in the course. Although the type of writings being drafted vary based on the topic of the Legal Writing III course, all Legal Writing III courses include at least (and often more than) a total of 25-pages of writing with the opportunity to rewrite the major assignment(s) after significant written and oral feedback from the course professor. Major writing assignments will comprise at least 60 percent of the course grade. Additionally, all Legal Writing III courses require students to complete at least two Multi-State Performance Tests ("MPT") selected by the Director of Legal Writing. A practice MPT will be given at the midterm exam and a graded MPT (worth 10 percent of the course grade) will be given at the final exam. This course is designed to introduce students to persuasive pretrial advocacy in a criminal case. The bulk of criminal litigation is handled pretrial through pleadings, discovery, witness interviews, and pretrial motions. The course will prepare students for practice in criminal law by focusing on the application and expansion of their legal writing skills in a criminal law context. Through written assignments and class discussions, students will engage in various pretrial activities found in criminal practice, which may include motions and briefs for trial. This course serves as a major writing requirement.