Civil Litigation takes students through all phases of Florida and federal civil litigation, with primary emphasis on tort claims. It is the applied procedure course of a paralegal program: students learn civil procedure and the rules of evidence not as theory but as the sequence of documents, deadlines, and tasks that carry a lawsuit from the client interview through pleadings, discovery, motion practice, pretrial preparation, trial, and post-judgment work.
Within the SCNS taxonomy, PLA is the Paralegal/Legal Assisting prefix. PLA2201 sits in the applied core of the A.S. in Paralegal Studies, normally in the second year after the introductory and legal research courses. Roughly five Florida institutions carry this number. The course is the natural companion to PLA2303 Criminal Litigation, and together they cover the two procedural systems a Florida paralegal is most likely to work inside.
The distinguishing feature of this course is that it is deliberately Florida-specific. Civil procedure is not uniform: the Florida Rules of Civil Procedure and the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure differ in meaningful, deadline-bearing ways, and a paralegal who learns only the federal rules will miss things that matter in a Florida state court case. Good sections of this course teach both and teach the differences explicitly.
Florida institutions do not agree on where civil litigation belongs in the curriculum. Daytona State publishes it as PLA2201 "Civil Litigation" — a 2000-level lecture course. Broward College publishes the same subject as PLA1201C "Civil Litigation" — a 1000-level, C-suffixed integrated course. Other institutions carry it under the inventory title "Litigation Procedures."
These are different SCNS numbers, and SCNS equivalency does not cross numbers. A student who completed PLA1201C and transfers to a program requiring PLA2201 should not assume the requirement is satisfied; it may be accepted as an equivalent by the receiving program, but that is a program decision, not an automatic articulation. Ask, in writing, before registering for a term that assumes it.
The single most important professional boundary in this field: a paralegal may not give legal advice, may not accept a case, may not set a fee, and may not represent a client. In Florida, the unauthorized practice of law is not merely an ethics matter — § 454.23, Florida Statutes makes it a third-degree felony, and The Florida Bar maintains an active UPL department that investigates and pursues injunctions. Florida has prosecuted UPL cases against document preparers, immigration "notarios," and freelance paralegals working directly with the public.
The practical line drawn in this course is the useful one: a paralegal may convey information; only a lawyer may apply the law to a client's facts and recommend a course of action. Telling a client the deadline stated in a rule is information. Telling a client whether their case is worth filing is advice. When a client asks the second kind of question — and they will, constantly, because the paralegal is the person who answers the phone — the correct answer is to say that the attorney will address it, and then make sure the attorney does.
Note also the Florida-specific credential: the Florida Registered Paralegal (FRP) designation is administered by The Florida Bar and is voluntary. Florida does not license paralegals. The title is regulated in the sense that only qualifying individuals may use it, but there is no state licensure requirement to work as a paralegal.
This is a subject where a textbook or a study outline more than a few years old will actively mislead a student. Two areas of change stand out.
The Florida Rules of Civil Procedure were substantially amended effective January 1, 2025. The amendments introduced mandatory initial disclosures, active case management with differentiated case tracks and firm trial dates, and brought Florida's discovery scope into closer alignment with the federal proportionality standard. Practically, this changed how quickly a Florida case must be worked after filing. Any course material describing Florida discovery as broadly permissive with loose scheduling predates this.
Florida's tort and limitations landscape changed in 2023. Among other reforms, the statute of limitations for general negligence was shortened from four years to two years, and Florida moved to a modified comparative negligence standard barring recovery for a plaintiff found more than 50 percent at fault. For a litigation paralegal, the limitations change is the one that can destroy a case: a deadline calculated from an outdated four-year assumption is a malpractice event.
Rule: verify the current rule text and the current statute before relying on any secondary source, including this guide. Both the rules and Chapter 95 are available free and authoritative online. Law changes; the habit of checking is the actual professional skill.
Most of what goes catastrophically wrong in civil litigation support is a missed date. Statutes of limitation, service deadlines, discovery response windows, summary judgment service requirements, and expert disclosure dates are all unforgiving, and in most firms the paralegal owns the calendar. Two habits taught well in this course are worth carrying: calculate every deadline from the rule text, not from memory (Florida Rule of Judicial Administration 2.514 governs how time is computed, and it does not always match intuition), and docket the deadline plus reminders working backward from it, not the deadline alone. A firm that trusts a paralegal's calendar is a firm that promotes that paralegal.
PLA2201 is a lecture course, typically 3 credits and approximately 45 contact hours, offered in fall at Daytona State. Some Florida institutions report 48 contact hours for the same three credits, reflecting a sixteen-week term convention rather than a difference in content. The work is document-heavy by design: expect to draft real pleadings and discovery, build a case file across the term, and be graded on format and accuracy as much as on substance — because in practice, a pleading rejected by the clerk for a formatting defect is a pleading not filed.
How Florida course levels affect transfer: the first digit of an SCNS number denotes the year of offering, not transferability. 1000- and 2000-level courses transfer transparently between Florida public institutions; the boundary that matters is 2000 to 3000, where lower-division credit generally cannot satisfy an upper-division requirement. PLA2201 transfers as lower-division credit.
Two caveats specific to paralegal studies. First, the A.S. in Paralegal Studies is an applied, career-oriented degree; it is not the A.A. transfer degree, and it does not carry the same guaranteed junior-status transfer into a state university baccalaureate. Students who may want a bachelor's should discuss the A.A. path or a specific 2+2 articulation with an advisor before accumulating an A.S. Second, this course is not a substitute for law school and does not shorten it — a paralegal degree is a credential for a distinct profession, not a stepping stone with advanced standing. It is, however, genuinely excellent preparation for law school for students who choose that path later, and Florida law schools see a steady stream of former litigation paralegals who arrive knowing what a case actually looks like.
Generated September 2, 2026 · Updated September 2, 2026