e-Discovery Team Training
Welcome StudentsStudy at you own time, your own place, your own pace.
You are now at the School for general training on e-Discovery law. This is an introductory level course that will provide you with good background knowledge should you later want to go deeper into the technology of e-discovery electronic document review. That is the subject of the TAR Training course. Incidentally, TAR stands for “technology assisted review.” TAR will also be briefly mentioned in this introductory course, but the School emphasis will be on legal topics.
Study at your own time, your own place, your own pace.
This course was designed by lawyers for lawyers, paralegals and law students, but is open to everyone. It includes over eleven hours of high-definition videos from some of the top experts in the world. Each of the 85 classes concludes with challenging follow-up assignments that require creativity, research skills and independent thinking.
This is equivalent to a four to five credit academic course in a major law school, where, for each hour of class, a law student is expected to devote one to three hours of outside study. In fact, a very similar, albeit shorter program was taught online for two years at the University of Florida College of Law.
The training program, including suggested homework, requires between 75 to 400 hours of study. It depends on how much time you put into the supplemental exercises and research assignments. I used to say between 75-200 hours, but one star student kept track of all of his time, and did every possible homework assignment, and clicked and read every link, spent over 400 hours!
Any way you measure it, this is an opportunity for a tremendous amount of guided study. The beauty of online instruction is that you not only do this work at your own time and at your own speed, but you study wherever and however you please. The exact amount of time required depends on the student. We estimate it will take at least 75 hours, but some speed-reading attorneys with experience have gone through it even faster. Not sure you want to take this on? At least check out the opening class that provides an introduction to the program and its potential benefits.
Online education is a good way to learn this new area of the law, not just sit through lectures. Research shows that online education is more effective than bricks and mortar. You study at your own time, your own place, your own pace. The classes are challenging, but with study can be understood by all levels of students. Best of all, you do not have to be enrolled in law school to take this course. We admit everyone, anywhere in the world. You take it whenever you want, for as long as you want.
Unlike many law school classes or CLEs, this program is designed to be interesting and engaging. It is filled with cultural references, both pop and classic. There are detailed hyper-linked writings, over eleven hours of high-definition videos from a number of experts, and challenging follow-up assignments. This may be a difficult program, but you will be learning from some of the best legal instructors in the world.
Want to see one of our students (in avatar form) in action? Then check out the animation below of a Rule 26(f) conference against a typical clueless opposing counsel. This is one of our attempts at creative, fun instruction. Electronic discovery can win cases for plaintiffs and defendants. This animation gives you one idea of how to do it.
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Who Can Attend?
Although this online legal training program is designed primarily for attorneys, professors, paralegals and law students, it is open to all dedicated students around the world. You need only have a strong interest in e-discovery law and willingness to work hard. Our students also include:
Students may study at their own pace and take classes whenever it fits into their schedule. Since the classes are online, you can sign-in to read or watch them anyplace you have a connected device. The classes are designed to work well and be easy to read on your phone and tablets too. All you need is a good Internet connection.
Why is this Free? What’s the Catch?
This kind of law school quality e-discovery education, if you could get it, would cost anywhere from $4,000 to $10,000. Our price is now – zero. It’s Free. (We used to charge $500 to cover overhead, but in 2017 switched to this free model.) Some day we may include vendor ads, but in the meantime, this is just an old lawyer’s legacy and payback to the legal profession. He now absorbs all of the costs of running the program.
Why? He does not want his grandchildren to live in a post-truth world. He strongly believes that disputes should be resolved on the merits, not on opinions, money and power. He feels strongly that lawsuits, like elections, should be decided on the “true-facts.” Justice requires truth. Truth in the law today cannot be found without effective, cost-efficient discovery. It requires lawyers and legal teams who are masters of the digital domain.
Most lawyers today only know paper files. They cannot find the digital histories recorded everywhere in electronic systems, facts that they need to represent their clients. They cannot discover what really happened, at least not the full picture. They often miss the key documents they need because the evidence is digital, yet lawyer training is still only in paper. They still think that truth can be uncovered in a stack of papers. They do not realize that it is all digital now, that the few papers they see are mere partial printouts, not originals.
The truth is out there, but is hidden in vast clouds of electronically stored information. Most lawyers are still struggling with technology and ESI. The old lawyer behind this program is trying to reverse this trend. He is trying to help the next legal generations. He is trying to open up a New Age of e-Discovery where all the key facts needed are quickly e-discovered. For this positive vision of the future see the third class in the first section of the course: Section One, Module C.
Who is Behind this Training Program?
Ralph Losey is the old lawyer behind this program. He is giving away his lifetime of technology and law knowledge to help keep the legal profession relevant in today’s fast changing world. He has also created a TARcourse.com to share what he knows about document review enhanced by artificial intelligence. That is his sub-speciality.
Ralph is an experienced attorney and legal trainer, not only in academic and CLE worlds, but in apprenticeship education programs found in most law firms around the world. He has over thirty-seven years of experience in law firms where, as a partner, he has trained hundreds of attorneys, paralegals, executive assistants, and lit-support techs. The Electronic Discovery Team Training program is connected with Ralph Losey and his e-Discovery Team Blog only. It has no affiliation with any other institution or group, including Ralph’s law firm.
Losey is one of the few attorneys in the country who has limited his practice solely to e-discovery since 2006. He has also written six books on e-discovery law published by West Thomson and the American Bar Association. He has written numerous other law review articles, books, book contributions, white papers and other articles on e-discovery or computer law. Ralph estimates he has now written over two million words on technology and law. He has also taught e-discovery law at countless CLEs around the country and law schools, including teaching as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Florida School of Law for four years. The last two years he taught online at U.F. using an earlier, shorter, now dated version of this same program. You probably already know Ralph as the publisher and principal writer of the e-Discovery Team Blog or may follow him on Twitter.
Ralph is one of only a handful of attorneys who have been using computers since the late 1970s and surfing online since the original BBS days of the 1980s. He was there when the Internet first came alive with the Mosaic web browser in the 1990s and was one of the first attorneys with an Internet website. It still exists at FloridaLawFirm.com. Ralph become convinced a few years ago that one of the biggest problems with the American Legal System today is the lack of knowledge about electronic discovery. He and his colleagues have written several articles about it, and also about the advantages of online education.
In Ralph’s vision of education future, creative online classes with a personal touch will largely replace traditional CLEs and supplement most law school curriculums. Sorry to cut into the income of some law schools by offering this for free, but the majority of schools still have nothing to offer. Moreover, many interested people around the world cannot afford the time and money demands of law school. For them free online is not only the best way, it is the only way.
Ralph can be reached at Ralph.Losey@gmail.com. He will try to respond to all education related questions within a few days.
Important Disclaimer and Declaration of Independence
This program is for educational purposes only and does not constitute the provision of legal services or legal advice. Please consult a lawyer for that. FYI – Ralph is not accepting new clients at this time. All views and opinions here are Ralph Losey’s own and not those of his law firm, clients, or any other group. Please see the full disclaimer. Again, this is solely Ralph’s education program and not that of any other person or group. An expert’s appearance or participation in this online program is not intended as an endorsement by that individual or any of their affiliated organizations. All of the lawyers and teachers in the program are serving solely in an educational capacity. No attorney client relationship is intend or created by your participation in this course or your interaction with any of the attorney instructors.
Copyright Ralph Losey 2017
