Engaging with the Legal System Assignment - Monash University

Assignment Task

Task

You must write a word assignment on one of the options below.

You are encouraged to start work on this assignment as soon as possible to ensure the best opportunity to attend hearings or legal service visits.

You MUST attend the hearing or legal service in person – you cannot attend online. The Courts will not facilitate virtual requests.

Option 1: Court Visit to a criminal law matter in the Magistrates’ or County Court

Prepare a paper in which you describe and analyse at least ONE criminal law hearing which you have observed this year in the Magistrates’ or County Court.

Ring and check that the court you want to visit is sitting on the day or check the Law List which is published online to see which courts are sitting on the day. Some courts will not be sitting regularly, so you must call. See notes below.

If you choose this option, you must write your paper responding to the following:

1. Criminal Matters

Some critics of our justice system have argued that people who find themselves in court as the defendant in a criminal matter should come out of that process with a positive result for their lives, rather than being punished. To what extent do your observations support or refute this contention? In answering this question, you should consider and explain one of the following concepts:

• therapeutic jurisprudence, or
• restorative justice, or
• rehabilitation

Was this concept evident in the current process of the court you observed? If so, to what extent and how did it affect the outcome? What changes, if any, might improve justice outcomes?

Notes to assist you:

• You are not required to consider all three concepts listed You are expected to consider only one .
• A criminal matter means the hearing of charges brought by the police or the State against a person for a punishable offence, e.g. a theft charge.
• To learn more about which courts hear criminal matters, see the list of courts at the end of this handout.
• As a starting point for your reading, you may wish to read Chapter 2 ‘Therapeutic Jurisprudence’, Chapter 3 ‘Restorative Justice’ and Chapter 9 ‘Problem-Oriented or Solution-Focused Courts’ of Michael King, Arie Freiberg, Becky Batagol and Ross Hyams, Non-Adversarial Justice 2 nd ed, Federation Press, 2014

OR

Option 2: Court Visit to a civil law matter in the Magistrates’ or County Court

Prepare a paper in which you describe and analyse at least ONE civil law hearing which you have observed this year in the Magistrates’ or County Court.

Ring and check that the court you want to visit is sitting on the day or check the Law List which is published online to see which courts are sitting on the day. Some courts will not be sitting regularly, so you must call. See notes below.

If you choose this option, you must write your paper responding to the following:

2. Civil Matters

‘Access to justice’ refers to the ability of people to engage with the many formal and informal aspects of the justice system and to enjoy the benefits of living in a society governed by the rule of law.

In practice, a variety of obstacles can prevent access to justice, from difficulties obtaining legal information and understanding the law, to the inability to afford private legal advice and assistance to navigate the formal justice system.

In the civil proceeding you observed, to what extent did access to justice problems arise regarding any of the following areas?

• Alternative dispute resolution
• Pro bono legal assistance
• Self-represented litigants
• Judicial intervention in hearings

What were the obstacles to justice in the matters you observed and how was the court attempting to overcome them? What areas of the civil process need improvement and what suggestions can you make to improve access to justice in these areas?

Notes to assist you:

• You do not need to consider all areas listed above as they may not all be relevant to the matter/s you observed, but you must consider at least one . For example, you may just consider alternative dispute resolution or self-represented litigants , or you may consider one of the other areas, or you may consider two, or three, or
• Civil proceedings involve the hearing of a dispute about the rights and duties of the parties e.g. a dispute over who was responsible for a car accident.
• To learn more about which courts hear civil matters, see the list of courts at the end of this handout.
• As a starting point for your reading, you may wish to read Chapter 12 ‘Managerial and Administrative Justice’ of Michael King, Arie Freiberg, Becky Batagol and Ross Hyams, Non-Adversarial Justice, 2 nd ed, Federation Press, 2014

OR

Option 3: Visit to one of the Law Faculty’s Community Legal Services

Prepare a paper in which you describe and analyse at least ONE client matter which you have observed this year at one of the Monash Law Faculty’s Community Legal Services.

If you wish to do this option, please contact the Law Faculty Director of Work Integrated Learning Associate Professor Ross Hyams (ross.hyams@monash.edu) for approval, as numbers are limited. Once you have his approval, you should contact one of the participating Community Legal Services as soon as possible to tee up your visit.

If you choose this option, you must write your paper responding to the following:

3. Community Law

It has been argued that legal service clients do not really obtain a “fair go” in their attempts to obtain access to justice because of the limitations of a community legal service staffed by student lawyers. What did the student lawyer attempt to do to resolve the clients’ problems and ensure that the clients received a “fair go”? How were the clients’ options limited by the intrinsic nature of this type of legal service? Were the clients victims of injustice or is their involvement in the legal system a result of something else?

Notes to assist you:

• The Monash Law Clinics Clayton (MLCC) is a partnership between Monash Law School and Victoria Legal Aid. Through the service, members of the community can obtain free legal advice on a variety of legal matters including:
  • motor vehicle accidents
  • matrimonial and family matters
  • police prosecutions
  • debt
  • tenancy and neighbour disputes
  • contracts
  • social welfare
• The Legal Service is substantially run by students under the supervision of solicitors employed by Monash Law School and volunteers from the legal industry who also offer free legal advice.

• South-East Monash Legal Service (SMLS) is a community organisation providing free, confidential legal advice to all members of the community. Since the emergence of community legal centres in the 1970s, the philosophical basis of SMLS has been the provision of accessible legal assistance and information, community legal education and law reform to disadvantaged members of the
• SMLS operates in partnership with Monash University Law Faculty; enabling an extensive service to the community to be offered through the student clinic as well as providing a unique opportunity for law students to experience the realities of legal practice and gain exposure to a wide variety of legal issues.
• You will need to request that a supervisor or student of the Legal Service shows you and explains to you a current case file. (Note that you are bound by confidentiality and may not discuss the contents of the file with anyone outside of the Legal Service. When writing the paper, you must use pseudonyms instead of real names).

This Law has been solved by our PhD Experts at My Uni Paper.