A bit of research has revealed that there are several law schools, that offer degrees by internet. The cost advantage is huge…plus, you can study the material at your leisure…has anybody gotten a decnt JD degree from one of these places?
I’m planning a career in animal rights law…should I look to the internet for my legal training?
As you probably know, universities have provided degree courses for external students for many years. Someone I know successfully completed his law degree and his bar finals (required to be a barrister here in the UK) this way, while also holding down a full-time job and raising a family! It can be done. I don’t know your location, but here in the UK we have a thing called the Open University which has helped people to achieve a degree in countless different subjects studying from home.
So my point is simply that the idea is nothing new, and yes it is practical and it can be done. Obviously, not all places offering ‘a degree’ are equally trustworthy or provide equal quality of tuition and care. All you can do is ask around (as you are doing here, I guess) and take recommendations from people who have done it. It might help people to give you more useful feedback if they had a clue where in the world you are.
Look for their accredidation. Ensure that’s a region accrediting authority. Google will really help you out here. Don’t just trust a school because they say they’re accredited!
My mother has her JD from one of these outfits. The people she went to school with are limited in terms of where they can sit for the bar. Not all states recognize these degrees, and may have you apprentice with a licensed attorney before permitting you to sit for their bar exam.
If I were to take the law course from the same school as my mother, I would have to wait five years to take the California bar, then another four or five to take the Pennsylvania bar. In the meantime, I could work as a paralegal, which is disappointing in light of the cost of the degree and the investment of time.
By comparison, if I were to attend Dickinson School of Law, which is the Penn State University law school, I could take the bar as soon as I met the requirements.
Robin
I’m sure they must be better than those online Medical Schools!
Nonsense! Drag-and-drop surgery has come along further than you think. You medical types are soooo biased against e-ternative medicine! 
LOL!
I’m sorry, I just can’t cope with the thought of virtual pelvic exams!
[end hijack]
Be aware that, in the US, many states won’t let you sit for the bar exam if you haven’t graduated from an ABA-accredited law school, and those states that do (like California) ususally require that the school have a state accredation (read: only in-state nonaccredited schools count for that state).
401: Authorization Required
<clickety clickety click clickety clickety bibbity bobbity boo>
Would you like me to remember this password? Y/N/Never
<CLICK!>
404: Organ not found Please recheck the medical record and try again
<clickety clickety clickety clickety snippety snippety>
301: Moved Permanently You will be redirected to the new location
then
301: Moved Temporarily - please try again later. You may also:
A) check to see if it’s caught under your retractor
B) look under your other hand (and stop leaning on the patient!)
C) check your proxy authenication
If error persists, please notify next of kin.
ralph124c, for more on distance learning, let me refer you to www.degreeinfo.net – a.k.a. www.degreeinfo.com – ; not only the articles, but also its discussion board (similar format to this one) where I have obtained good information on similar matters in the past. You could sound them out for info from currently-enrolled or graduates in the programs. Still, the basic thing you need to know has been covered by Dewey and MsRobyn.
I just had to comment here …please dont attend an online law school! geez, its hard enough getting in with a good firm starting out…and believe me, WHERE you obtained your education means A LOT. My boyfriend went to Univ. of Connecticut for undergrad and then went to Pace Law School in NYC…on his interviews he came up against all sorts of pricks…(shocking isnt it?) One even sacractically said he had never heard of the University of Connecticut…but I digress. Dont waste your money on something that will do more harm than good.
Best to ya
The Straight Dope – as a former student can provide it.
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NO ONLINE LAW SCHOOL IS ABA ACCREDITED – Online law schools are considered correspondence schools by the ABA, and they will not accredit any such school, period. They may do so some day, but not now.
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CALIFORNIA WILL NOT ACCREDIT THEM EITHER – California will REGISTER unaccredited schools, and permit their students to take the First Year Law Students Examination , or “Baby Bar.” This exam, which is not required for students of accredited schools, is taken at the end of the first year of law school, and covers criminal law, torts, and contracts. Successful completion of the exam permits the student to complete his legal education and sit for the California Bar Exam. The successful student may then practice law in California. At this time, I don’t think such a lawyer would be admitted to practice law in any other state. California has been looking into accrediting some online law schools, but they’re not there yet, and reciprocity, AFAIK, would still depend on ABA accreditation.
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THE SCHOOLS ARE OKAY – I do not have brick-and-mortar-school experience to compare, but those who have both claim that the education is good at the online school. Online schools lack the degree of student-student and student-teacher contact that traditional schools have, but they enjoy a greater degree of student co-operation and the schools work very hard to get high passing rates (a contrast with many traditional law schools). I attended Concord University Law School (a division of Kaplan). The recorded lectures were by top-notch law professors from around the country, the textbooks were standard casebooks and hornbooks (mostly from West), and the professors who handled the “classwork” were, AFAIKT, competent and concerned about providing a good legal education. I did not complete my law degree because I did not pass the FYLSE; I attribute this to the lack of time spent studying (full-time job, chairing a professional association, whipping a new house into shape, keeping a not-entirely-supportive wife happy – it takes time). I was very close, however, and if I had more time to spend on it, I would have retaken the test and gone on with classes.
Got more specific questions?
You MUST pass the exam.
All Phd’s are jealous of their status and you won’t get yours without running the gauntlet.
The thesis board of review, composed of such Phd’s play a game of "Give the candidate a hard time, don’t pass him the first time, embarrass him if at all possible, pick his paper to pieces and scatter them symbolically, etc. ad infinitum.
I suspect that is why so many solicitors are such nasty fellows.
“Beware of the Cog”
[hijack on]
Nametag how flexible were the courses timewise? How did you feel about the whole experience? Was it worth the money, overall?
I’m looking to broaden my knowledge and don’t ever plan on practicing (I already have a career that I’m tied to). However, my schedule can be erratic (i.e. gone for five days, eight days off). Would a schedule like this be workable?
[hijack off]
The state requires that the school hold students to a timetable – each year contains certain classes (plus electives in the later years) and must be completed on schedule, the final exams are taken with the other students (online, but in real time), and the first year must be completed in time to take the FYLSE. In addition, there are regularly scheduled “office hours” which are done in a chat room with a Real Player feed from the professor. You can skip these, but they contain valuable information. They are recorded, but not available for a whole year, and it’s not the same as participating.
Within those guidelines, the schedule is very flexible – lectures, quizzes, and timed essays can be taken whenever you wish. This, of course, means it’s easy to get behind – the reading schedule is very demanding, especially if you do it right (reading and outlining the law, reading and briefing the cases). Is it worth the money? I believe that what I learned in a year and a half of law school will be enormously valuable to me, and I believe that having a J.D. would have been a great addition to my résumé. I had no intention of practicing law in a firm, but I thought I might get involved in intellectual property work, or maybe food and drug law. I really wish I had had the time to work on it, – perhaps I will do it someday.
FWIW, Concord also has a program called the “Executive J.D.” which confers no right to practice law. It’s not subject to the state’s timetable, but it costs more than the J.D. program. Look for that
spingears, lawyers do not write theses, do not take oral exams, and do not earn Ph.D.s in law school – what are you talking about?
Thanks Nametag.
As stated above, they are not accredited. This means in most cases, you can take the bar exam in the state where the school is located. If you become a lawyer in that state, other states may let you apply in their state. But even for graduates of accredited schools have to retake the new state’s exam, although it is often abbreviated, and non-accred. grads may have longer waiting periods or other hurdles if they are allowed at all. Think of bar assn’s as guilds and you get an idea of the challenges awaiting you.
As far as educating you, US law schools are excellent at teaching legal reasoning but do a poor job teaching teh law (which could be a debate for another thread). I would expect that an online school could do a very good job teaching the law but am skeptical that they could ever do a good job teaching legal reasoning, which you really learn from the classroom. Legal reasoning is critical and is as important or more important that knowing the law.
I’m skeptical that the benefits of an online school outweigh its disadvantages.
I would be extremely cautious about pursuing a law degree through an on-line law school.
I would say that the first step in making decision about lawschool is to think about what your goals are.
If you want to work for the government, or for a private firm, or for a non-profit organization, I do not think a degree from an online program would help you meet that goal. Aside from difficulties sitting for the bar exam when you do not have a degree from an accredited school, you will also run into the problem that your credential will be viewed with a great deal of skepticism. The legal profession (and not just big fancy lawfirms) is EXTREMELY, absurdly fixated on credentials.
If you are going to make the huge emotional, financial and chronological investment in going to law school, I would advise you to come out of it with the best credential that you can.
On top of that, I agree LemonThrower’s point that law school is not really about learning the “law” (as in the body of rules and regulations covering conduct) but about learning how to think about and solve legal problems. I know that may sound vague and arcane, but the point is, it’s the difference between memorizing verbs in a foreign language, and actually learning to speak it in conversation.
If you are concerned about other committments, I would say look into whether any law school’s in your area offer courses at night. Georgetown, for example, is a fantastic law school that offers a night program for working students.