Law Distance Learning

The art of law is notoriously detailed and difficult.  It is an incredibly broad industry, one that can cover all sorts of sins.  It requires a special type of person to be able to practice law.  If you want to practice law, you have a number of options, but one main path if you want to practice in the United States.  Here, we'll go through the requirements that you'll need to go through to get a law degree, and whether or not you can study law as a distance learning deal.

What is the Basic Path to a Law Degree?

A law degree is a post-graduate degree, meaning that you must have a high school diploma or a GED, and a bachelor's degree from some institution of higher learning to qualify for law school.  If you want to be a paralegal, that is much easier to obtain, particularly online.  You need a high school diploma or a GED for a paralegal degree, which is a type of associates degree, but after that, it is around 2 years of studying, and then you are certified.  This is a great job to have, because it largely involves learning procedural stuff and basic secretarial work (though the position is more than a secretary), so it is relatively easy to do online while you are working at another job.

But for a law degree, a Juris Doctorate, you need to go to law school after getting your bachelor's.  What you get your bachelor's in doesn't matter so much, but it does help you get into school if you have a degree that is somewhat fitting to what you plan to practice law in.  Common undergrad degrees include political science, history, pre-law, philosophy, public policy, criminal justice, and so on.  To get into law school, you generally have to take the LSAT standardized test and then apply to schools.  When you get in, it's anywhere from 2 to 4 years of intensive study learning to be a lawyer.  When you graduate, you have a JD, but you can't practice law until you are certified by the jurisdiction you want to work in's bar association, which you get by passing their bar exam.  Usually, in the United States, this is by state, and there is also a federal bar exam. 

After that, you get a job in law and start working your way up.  So what can you do in law?

Types of Law Practice

There are two basic divisions of law:  criminal and civil.  Criminal law deals with the crime and punishment aspect of law, where if you break a law, the state or some other party brings a suit against you, and it can result in fines or jail or probation or something of the sort.  These are for felonies and misdemeanors, things of that sort.  Generally, there are three types of lawyers in criminal law.  There are the defenders, who defend the accused for a fee, the public defenders, who are provided to anyone who can't afford their own lawyer, and the prosecutors, who are employed by the District Attorney's office, and who are in charge of prosecuting crimes. 

Then there is civil law, which is basically the realm of lawsuits and taxes and property.  This is stuff that you won't end up in jail for.  These are also usually where the suit is brought against an entity by another entity that is not the state, though the state can be involved in civil suits as well.  Generally, this is divided up into hundred of other categories that are either involved in working on cases, serving clients, or influencing policy.  There are tax lawyers, who make sure their clients taxes are in order and also may work with (or as) accountants.  They may also represent people who are having tax problems.  There are human rights and civil rights lawyers, environmental lawyers, and other lawyers who may work in fields that essentially make them legal activists.  There are maritime lawyers, there are corporate lawyers, and they can fall into pretty much any other type of legal counsel that you can come up with. 

Civil law accounts for a large chunk of the legal activity in the United States, and it is also the more lucrative of the two fields.  Some - corporate law - pay more than others - human rights law. There are a ton of options open for you though. 

Law Distance Learning

As we said before, paralegals can do this relatively easily.  There are also schools that offer law degrees online, either fully or partially.  Since most of law is research and reading, it is something that doesn't require quite as much handson experience as you would think, and as a result, law distance learning is totally possible.  Generally, there are a number of schools that will offer you a law degree online, and if you really want to become a lawyer, you should get these.  Regardless, if you want to practice law, you will still have to pass the bar exams, and as a result, they can weed out cheaters or slackers who do their work online.  You will probably have an easier time finding a job in the United States if you actually physically went to law school, just because that looks more reputable, but if you are trying to get your law degree while working another job, you may be able to get your degree online and still be an attorney somewhere.

I would suggest shopping around, and I would also make sure that the school is accredited and recognized by the American Bar Association, which is ultimately the final arbiter of whether or not you can really be a lawyer.  So if you want to find some law distance learning degrees, do a quick search of your options online and check it out today!

Disclaimer:  we are not offering any law degree services, we are just giving advice.  So yeah, do a Google search and find soemthing that fits for you.