Trial Counselor Program

At the completion of Trial Counseling Program the student will be able to:

Have a working knowledge of the major techniques of legal research and writing.
Describe how the FSM and state rules of criminal law & procedure are interpreted and applied.
Describe the law of torts and basic principles of admiralty law.
Understand the concept of dispute resolution techniques including, but not limited to, mediation, arbitration, and community resolution procedures.
Understand the law of contracts and general business law.
Describe the processes of comprehensive examination of problems of proof and the rules of evidence.
Understand the constitution of the FSM, its States and municipalities.
Describe the FSM and State rules of appellate & civil procedure.
Describe and explain the FSM and State real property laws.
Practice actual supervised pre-trial and trial skills in civil and criminal cases.

PSLO Assessment Report Summary

The Trial Counseling certificate, assessment focused on PSLOs 1, 2, 6, 7, 9, and 10. Listed below are the results for each of the PSLOs.

PSLO #1: This PLO was assessed Fall 2012, using the Legal research class. Assessment as identified under strategies and the overall performance was at 90%.
PSLO #2: The PLO was assessed in Fall 2012, using Law 215 or Criminal law and the pass rate, based on assessment strategies resulted in a 83% pass rate.
PSLO #6: The outcome was assessed using Law 228 or Evidence during Spring 2013. A total of 15 students enrolled and 14 (93%) students completed and passed the course.
PLSO #7: This outcome was assessed during Spring of 2013, using course (Law 232) Constitutional Law. The assessed using tools identified under assessment strategies. A total of 19 students enrolled and 17 students completed and passed the course.
PSLO #9: The outcome was assessed in Spring 2013, using (Law 238) Real Property. A total of 20 students enrolled in the course and they were assessed, using the tools indicated as assessment strategies. Out the 20m students, 18 students passed and completed the course.
PSLO #10: Summer 2012-Nine (9) students enrolled and 7 students completed the course with a 78% pass rate. Summer 2013-Fourteen (14) students enrolled and all completed the course at a 100% pass rate. Students were assessed for both Summers 2012 and 2013. Results indicated about 75% passing rate. The target is met but has the lowest passing rate compared to the other outcomes.

A recommendation by the instructor is to have two semesters of legal research class instead of one, prior to taking this course. An additional recommendation is to purchase a package through CALL.org, a computer-assistant learning program used by nearly every law school in the United States. The package costs around $250.00/year.
The course currently does not have a textbook. There is no recommendation for a textbook at the moment. Part of the reason why no recommendation has been made can be attributed to the fact that the course is taught by a different instructor every semester. Thus, there has not been any consensus to a specific textbook. a recommendation can be made to address the need for a regular law instructor who can also serve as the coordinator for the program.
Offer the course during a regular semester or have students take only one course, which is this course.

Students planning to enroll into the program can follow the proposed schedule of courses (per College catalog) to begin taking introductory law courses.
Students planning to get into the course are recommended to have good research and writing, analytical and critical thinking skills.
Recommended for in service legal staff or someone interested in the legal field.

College of Micronesia - FSM