Common factors which may affect access to justice

Court and tribunal personnel
Rights of audience

Types of hearings in courts and tribunals, and an introduction to their purpose and function for example:

Trials
Plea and Trial Preparation Hearings
Directions Hearings
Plea before Venue and Allocation
Bail applications
Sentencing
Appeals
Determination of costs
Determination of damages

An introduction to professional regulation and ethical codes:

The Solicitors Regulation Authority
Bar Standards Board
Chartered Institute of Legal Executives
Common professional ethical dilemmas – conflict of interest; confidentiality; duty to court.

Students will arrange and carry out a visit to a court or tribunal and write a report on their observations (LO4) This report will be scaffolded by the tutor/examiner with guidance on the aspects to consider. Students will identify the function of the hearing they attended, the roles of persons involved, and consider the potential impact of access to justice to the observed hearing (LOs 1 and 3). They will also be required to consider the relevance of ethical codes for legal practitioners by identifying how they might apply to the observed hearing (LO3)

Students will be given information and advice on arranging a visit to a court or tribunal, however this will be a self-organised activity which will encourage independent learning and initiative (LO4).

The contact hours for the module will be made up of 1-hour large group and 2-hour small group activities each week. The large group lecture will be focused on introducing core knowledge and concepts to students in a holistic way, considering how the different types of hearing in courts and tribunals relate to the litigation process in general, including the ethical frameworks within which legal professionals operate. This will be largely but not wholly expository, with opportunities for students to engage with ideas and concepts through questioning and other interactive learning activities such as polls and quizzes.

Small group activities will take the form of workshops in which students will be actively engaged in the co-construction of knowledge through a range of individual, paired and group tasks. Students will be developing their understanding of the subject knowledge through application to real life scenarios in order to gain insight into factors that might have an impact on justice in particular situations. They may do this through a range of practical tasks including advising a client and identifying appropriate ethical solutions for practitioners to hypothetical dilemmas. Active learning will be at the heart of the strategy, and students will be asked to feed ideas and information back to the group for discussion.

Students will be recommended to spend approximately 6-8 hours per week on independent study tasks including preparation for workshops, carrying out recommended reading, and consolidation of lecture and workshop notes. The balance of the independent study hours will be spent on activities related to the assessment, including organising and carrying out a visit to a court or tribunal, and the preparation, writing and editing of the summative assessment task.

PDP topics will be embedded in this module as follows, each of which will be the subject of dedicated workshop activities:

Pathways to employment: which route is right for me? This will assist students in making choices about their pathway and options at Level 5.

Professional values and behaviours

Reflective skills

1. Identify and explain the key functions of legal hearings and processes, and the personnel involved, in a court or tribunal.

Knowledge and understanding

2. Apply knowledge and understanding of core ethical duties of legal professionals to incidents and processes in practice.

Knowledge and Understanding Application

3. Identify some common issues relating to access to justice and analyse their potential impact on a legal hearing.

Learning; analysis

4. Plan and manage your own learning by independently arranging and carrying out a visit to a court or tribunal.

Problem solving; communication

5. Reflect on the development of your own knowledge relating to legal processes, ethical frameworks or professional behaviours in practice.

Reflection

Additional textbooks on English Legal System are available via Law Trove.

BSB Code of Conduct (Barristers)
SRA Code of Conduct (Solicitors)
CILEx Code of Conduct (Chartered Legal Executives)
Practical Law online database.

Finch E and Fafinski S, Employability Skills for Law Students (Oxford University Press 2014)
Gillespie A and Weare S, The English Legal System. (7th edn, Oxford University Press 2019)
Herring J, Legal Ethics (2nd edn, Oxford University Press 2017)

All reference texts are available on the Law Trove digital textbook service.