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University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Legal Processes: Family Law, Procedure, and Evidence

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign via Coursera

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Overview

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This course explores how legal rights are protected and enforced through family law, procedure, and evidence. You will learn how family law governs marriage, divorce, custody, adoption, and reproductive and end-of-life decisions. You will follow a civil lawsuit from filing through discovery, settlement, and trial, and a criminal prosecution from investigation through sentencing and appeal. Along the way, you will study the rules of evidence, the constitutional rights of the accused, and the role of legal ethics in sustaining a fair and adaptable legal system.

Syllabus

  • Module 1: Family Law
    • You will learn how the law defines marriage and its rights and duties, including the recognition of same-sex marriage, and how annulment, divorce, alimony, property division, child custody, and child support work. You will also learn how adoption and termination of parental rights protect children's welfare, how reproductive rights law has developed from Griswold to Dobbs, and how end-of-life decisions, bioethics, and assisted reproductive technologies are reshaping family law.
  • Module 2: Pretrial Civil Procedure
    • You will learn the goals of procedural law and follow a single civil lawsuit, Aurora v. Helios, from the initial claims through the pretrial process. You will learn how a case is filed in the proper court, how service of process and the defendant's responses work, and how discovery tools such as interrogatories, document requests, and depositions build the evidence. You will also learn how settlement negotiations and judicial settlement conferences resolve most civil disputes before trial.
  • Module 3: Trials and Evidence
    • You will learn how a civil jury trial unfolds in Aurora v. Helios, from jury selection and motions in limine through opening statements, each side's presentation of evidence, closing arguments, jury instructions, deliberations, and the verdict. You will also learn how rules of evidence, such as authentication and admissibility, shape what the jury hears, and how post-trial motions and judgment follow a verdict.
  • Module 4: The Rules of Evidence
    • You will learn how the Federal Rules of Evidence determine what a jury may hear, including relevance, the exclusion of unfairly prejudicial evidence, direct and circumstantial evidence, and the foundation needed to authenticate exhibits. You will also learn how courts evaluate expert testimony under the Daubert and Frye standards, how the hearsay rule and its major exceptions work, and how privileges such as attorney-client privilege keep relevant evidence from the jury.
  • Module 5: The Pretrial Criminal Procedure
    • You will learn how a criminal case moves from investigation through pretrial proceedings by following State v. Morgan. You will learn how the exclusionary rule and the fruit of the poisonous tree doctrine remedy unconstitutional searches, how Miranda warnings and the Sixth Amendment right to counsel protect the accused, and how arraignment, plea bargaining, and Brady discovery obligations shape the case before trial.
  • Module 6: The Trial
    • You will learn how a criminal jury trial unfolds in State v. Morgan, beginning with the presumption of innocence, the prosecution's burden of proof beyond a reasonable doubt, and the constitutional rights of the accused at trial. You will follow the process through jury selection and Batson challenges, opening statements, the prosecution's and defense's cases, closing arguments, jury deliberations, and the verdict. You will also learn how judges impose sentences, including the role of allocution and state sentencing statutes.
  • Module 7: The Appellate Process
    • You will learn how the appellate process works by following State v. Morgan after conviction, including the notice of appeal, the appellant's brief, standards of review, and the burden of showing prejudicial error. You will also learn how oral argument and appellate decision-making work, how discretionary review in a state supreme court operates, and how federal habeas corpus review, including exhaustion and claims of ineffective assistance of counsel, provides a final avenue for challenging a conviction.
  • Module 8: Final Overview
    • You will learn how the major areas of American law fit together, including private law's governance of property, contracts, and torts, and procedural law's role in turning legal rights into enforceable outcomes through civil and criminal procedure. You will also learn why the law is an evolving system and how legal ethics, including candor, competence, and avoiding conflicts of interest, sustains its legitimacy.

Taught by

Jennie Pahre

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