LIBT Foundation in Law Programme- Legal Ethics and Skills: Assessment C (Court Report)
A word count must be included with your report.
ASSIGNMENT BRIEF:
Visit a criminal court and produce a court report of what was observed.
Your report should include information as to, or evidence of, the following:
1) Identify the court visited and describe its general role in the English justice system.
2) Explain the role(s) of at least five different types of personnel employed by the Magistrates court.
3) Defendants being tried in magistrates' courts in the UK may qualify for free legal advice and representation if they cannot afford their own lawyer.
Briefly explain the grounds on which such funding may be granted by applying the
i) "interests of justice" test
ii) and the"means test"
4) Give an account of the relevant details of one of the case(s) you observed.
• Identify the parties to the case(s)
• Identify the area(s) of law involved
• What was the outcome in the case or cases that you witnessed?
5) Write a short appraisal, (i.e. assessment or evaluation), of one of the cases that you witnessed.
NOTE:Your work is to be word processed and submitted in the format of a report.
There are also marks, (up to 10%), available for the professional quality of your answer. This will include good English and marks will be awarded for the appropriate use of paragraphs, good sentence structure, spelling, punctuation, and referencing where appropriate.
The writing style should be formal. Do not use slang, jargon or abbreviations of words that would be used in phone texting. Avoid the use of the first person i.e. "I went to the Magistrates Court", would be better phrased as "the court visited was "Uxbridge Magistrates Court".
TOTAL WORD COUNT: 2,000 words limit - (excluding references and any bibliography).