Virtual Law School

I recently decided that I wanted to attend law school. Not just did I want to attend law school, but I wanted to pass the Bar, and become fully certified to practice law. Since my schedule would not permit me to attend a traditional law school (or even a night law school), I opted for an on line legal education.

On line law education is not a scam, and people who want to practice law may do so with an on line legal education, but only in certain jurisdictions. As of now, the State of California is the only state which will recognize a correspondence legal education, but passing the Bar in California means that you can practice in any California court of law and in any federal court, up to and including the U.S. Supreme Court. Since it is my goal to practice in federal court, the state limitations placed upon me by those which do not recognize my correspondence legal education are of no importance to me.

I received confirmation of activation of my student account yesterday. I was so excited and I immediately logged into my virtual classroom. I took comfort in the fact that I was not the only student, and I was actually one of several hundred students all working towards goals of practicing law. I looked over the task checklist and began completing what simple tasks that I could. I began to order my books and registered on line with the State Bar of California as a law student. Bar registration is required within 90 days of starting legal studies for all first year law students who plan on sitting for the Bar exam. Cost is currently $92.00.

As for the books, now that's where I started to really become overwhelmed. The school I'm attending assigns me four classes a year, all to start on the same day, and all to be completed within a year. Each course requires one legal text book, one text book outline, and one audio course. All in all, first year law books would have run me almost $700.00, if I would have paid full price.

I had the best luck finding the lowest prices on Amazon.com and searching for the books and audio CD lessons that way. The good thing about Amazon is that they use a network of independent booksellers from all over the world who can put their items up for sale at a price way below the one printed on the cover. For example, I was able to find a legal text book on criminal law (which should have sold for $140.00) for $20.00. I saved myself $120.00! Other discounts exist too, which may not be as high as triple digit numbers, but even shaving a few bucks here and there off of the book's cover price will add up over time.

One strategy which I have found that works pretty well with my books is shopping for past editions. I wouldn't recommend going further than one edition back, because some text books do undergo a lot of changes from edition to edition, but for self paced virtual or distance education, having a book one edition older than the rest of the class won't cause too much damage. Some subjects hardly change or don't change at all, but new publisher contracts may cause a book to be re-printed as a new edition with a new forward from the author. Granted, buying an older version text book will have to be done at the student's own risk, but I have never had any problems with this strategy.

That pretty much sums up my first day of first year virtual law studies. As I looked over the assignment list, I silently hoped that I didn't just bite off more than I could chew.

Time will tell, I guess.