Consumer, Estate, and Criminal Basics

This unit examines practical legal issues that affect individuals in everyday life: residential real estate transactions, elder law and estate planning, and the fundamentals of criminal procedure. It builds on foundational legal concepts from earlier units and prepares students to apply client-centered practices and procedural knowledge in more advanced, case-based scenarios in the final unit.

Learning Objectives

• Analyze the legal rights, duties, and key documents involved in residential real estate transactions, including listing agreements, purchase contracts, mortgage instruments, and closing procedures for buyers and sellers.
• Apply consumer protection principles, ethical considerations, and referral practices when working with agents, brokers, lenders, sellers, and buyers to identify when legal counsel is required.
• Evaluate elder law and estate-planning tools — such as wills, trusts, living wills, durable powers of attorney, guardianship, Medicare/Medicaid basics, and long-term care options — and recommend appropriate legal resources or next steps for clients.
• Demonstrate knowledge of criminal-law fundamentals by identifying types and elements of crimes, describing arrest and trial procedures, and explaining defendants’ rights and options for representation and plea versus trial decisions.