Paramedic/JD idea

[cooleylawstudent]

waiting untill after 1L(or even the JD in whole) is good advice. As far as not benifiting from it, its just an argument of if someon who reads a book written by a third party thinks they know as much as the guy who the book was written on.
Thanks for the advice on not doing both at the same time, I will wait untill I'm done with one to do the other.

People get MBA's in combo to a JD all the time, and that is by far less useful than field experience in the medical field.

No one thinks paramedics/EMTs are jokes, but your idea is a colossal waste of time and completely pointless. You will get nothing out of being EMT-certified and a JD. Furthermore, you want to add classes on top of taking 1L courses? You must be certifiably insane.

[Jamie Stringer]

waiting untill after 1L(or even the JD in whole) is good advice. As far as not benifiting from it, its just an argument of if someon who reads a book written by a third party thinks they know as much as the guy who the book was written on.
Thanks for the advice on not doing both at the same time, I will wait untill I'm done with one to do the other.

People get MBA's in combo to a JD all the time, and that is by far less useful than field experience in the medical field.

Being an EMT is not "field experience in the medical field." Furthermore, I'm sure that most people with JD/MBAs are looking to get into more business-oriented types of law like M&A and the like where the business knowledge and strategy would come in handy. Note that an MBA is a graduate degree. An in depth study of one area. An EMT certification is useless. It's not an advanced field of study. Paramedics are only authorized to give something like what, 40 types of medication. You have no advanced knowledge of the biology or chemistry that a doctor would. You have no knowledge about drug interactions. And if you're only an EMT and not a paramedic, it's even less. I'd trust a school nurse turned JD more than a paramedic/JD.

But I have to give it to you...this is a pretty sweet flame.

[TTom]

Thats kind of my point too. It takes a lot longer to be a MD than a paramedic, I don't want or need the whole MD just a general idea(that plus a lot of medical mistakes happen in route to the hospital too)

I get it, you guys think paramedics and EMT's are a joke. Just don't say that outloud when you need one someday is all.   I guess that makes cops an equally big joke for those who who want to become  prosocution, afterall that dosn't require a PHD either.  

Please do become an EMT if you think you'd enjoy it, make some money, and it would give you something interesting to talk about in interviews. But the advantage that it will give you in med mal cases is negligible at best. And it will take away from time you should probably be focusing on your grades, not moonlighting.

[lilycb]

whats wrong with actually doing the work first hand before attempting to claim to understand what it is in court?

I get it. I have been an LPN for 3 years, now I'm pre-law. I want to do medical malpractice in the future. Being an LPN gives me an insight on what I might want to do; I doubt it will qualify me though. I personally believe that I would have to be a competetive graduate and have some proven success as an attorney in order to gain entrance into my desired field. I'm not sure how it works though, I'm just a pre-law student. I feel you though  

[cooleylawstudent]

Everything that you mentioned an EMT doing may be important if an EMT or Paramedic is the one who screwed up wouldn't it? Albeit an MBA may be worth looking into for some people too now that you mention it too. Hell, there's even joint JD/Dr of Divinity degrees too. At least one person must think that worthy of doing since they offer it on the books and I doubt that helps with actual practice of law.

People get MBA's in combo to a JD all the time, and that is by far less useful than field experience in the medical field.

Seriously? Have you ever looked at the curriculum for an MBA program? Usually, people who do an MBA/JD joint program want to go into Biglaw, and do international law or find a way to fast track their way to partnership. MBA programs contain courses in Marketing (finding business => clients => billable hours => more names in the address book for the firm => firm f-ing LOVES you), and because lawyers--and therefore, firms--aren't known for thinking far ahead, they tend to hire consultants for things like finance, business strategy, business management, leadership and organizational management. While the primary function of a person with an MBA/JD would be the practice of law, someone with some background in those areas would be beneficial in partners' meetings, just to have an extra opinion or to cover light poo they would have to pay for out the nose in consulting fees. Not to mention subjects like Human Resources Law, which no law student will ever touch unless they're specifically going into the practice of human resources law, because it's not on the goddamned bar exam.

And, speaking as someone who was mere hours from an EMT-I, if you're going for an EMT or Paramedic cert, that's to do one thing: be an EMT or paramedic. There's no advantage this will give you in the practice of law. Knowing how to run an IV, use an air splint, apply a c-collar, control bleeding and respiration, or knowing when and even why you have to radio a doc to administer a drug en route is not going to in any way provide you with any insight into the practice of law, or vice-versa. You're conflating being a paramedic with the actual practice of medicine as seen by physicians. Paramedics or EMTs don't do morbidity and mortality reviews, standing in front of a bunch of other doctors explaining what you did and why your patient is still dead, like physicians do. So there's no way a paramedic is going to have anywhere approaching the grasp on malpractice that a doctor will have. Even in the arena of personal injury, it's not going to matter what the severity of the person's injuries are from the viewpoint of a paramedic. It's going to matter what a physician says, and how the law lines up with the circumstances surrounding how the injuries were suffered and who is responsible.

So, do yourself a favor. Unless your career goal is actually to ride around in the back of an ambulance, most likely with a person who's being transported from one hospital to another and takes great joy in "burping" his colostomy bag and releasing this stench that would gag a maggot, forget the idea of getting an EMT or Paramedic cert, go to law school and be a lawyer. Because the two really don't mix. At all.

[cooleylawstudent]

Thanks for the feedback guys. I'll take it for what it is,  and if nothing else at least wait untill latter to persue the degrees untill after my JD is finished.  I used to be a MFR so it shouldn't be too hard for the next few leaps up when the time comes, but it can wait. One step at a time is the best way to avoid tripping, I suppose.

[TTom]

whats wrong with actually doing the work first hand before attempting to claim to understand what it is in court?

I get it. I have been an LPN for 3 years, now I'm pre-law. I want to do medical malpractice in the future. Being an LPN gives me an insight on what I might want to do; I doubt it will qualify me though. I personally believe that I would have to be a competetive graduate and have some proven success as an attorney in order to gain entrance into my desired field. I'm not sure how it works though, I'm just a pre-law student. I feel you though  

Med mal is not a competitive field. But being an LPN will help you when you have to review hundreds of pages of medical files and in case evaluation (whether standard of care was met, causation, etc.).