Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon Portland Community College

Transfer policy and course substitution

Transfer policy for Paralegal courses

For students to receive transfer credit for Paralegal courses offered at another institution, the following rules will be in effect:

  1. For classroom courses (not online), no more than 15 credits will be permitted to be transferred as paralegal specialty courses (either paralegal core or paralegal electives).
  2. Students are required to indicate whether the college is ABA approved.
  3. Students must provide a syllabus or a similar comprehensive summary of the course which was completed.
  4. Students must provide proof that the course was in a traditional classroom format.
  5. Students must provide official transcripts.
  6. PL 204 will not be approved for any transfer credit.
  7. If a student transfers credits from another institution, they are not permitted to substitute any non-paralegal classes as paralegal electives.
  8. No online classes will be allowed to be transferred as Paralegal credits.

Course substitution

The Paralegal program allows the substitution of a maximum of 6 credits of non-Paralegal courses for Paralegal electives. It is preferred and recommended that any requested substitution be approved by the Paralegal Department Chair before taking the course that will be substituted. Computer skills courses will not be approved as a substitution for Paralegal elective credit. Other course substitutions, such as business, political science, etc. are at the discretion of the Department Chair.

Paralegals may not practice law and may not provide legal services directly to the public except as permitted by law.

Paralegal program students must complete 14 quarter credit hours of synchronous instruction. Synchronous instruction means students must attend a scheduled class meeting time each week. This restriction is not applicable to Legal Assistant students.