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COURT FIELD TRIP ASSIGNMENT

The court field trip assignment is worth 20% of the overall marks for this subject.

Purpose:         This assessment is designed:

1. to expose you to the reality of court procedures and to allow you to develop a better understanding of how the law is enforced in Australia;

1. to give you experience in the preparation of a written report of your observations and experiences in a court room setting;

1. to give you experience of working with a partner collaboratively in the processing of information in an unfamiliar environment (court rooms).

Procedure:

1. In tutorial 2, you will be asked to choose a partner from your tutorial group with whom you will work with on this project.

With a partner, you need to choose a suitable date to attend the Magistrates Court AND the District or Supreme Court.  The District and Supreme courts are situated together on George Street between Adelaide and Ann Streets, just a block west from the river end of Queen Street Mall.  The city Magistrates Court is further along George Street on Hershel Street (I believe).  Check in the White Pages online.  As adults you can attend any court sitting as long as it is Open Court not Closed Court.  The status of the court sitting will be clearly posted.

Once you get to the courthouse, you can check the displays of what cases are being heard and select one or two that would be most interesting for you. Alternatively, you can access the law list via the website www.courts.qld.gov.au by first going to ‘practice and procedure’ then to the law list.  Usually the best time to attend is when the courts open at 10:00am.  You should arrive 10 to 15 minutes early.

1. WHEN you attend is purely YOUR responsibility.  It is strongly advised, however, that students go sooner than later as there is usually no notice given as to when the courts will be officially closed.

1. You may sit in on any matter, including a trial or hearing, whether it is civil or criminal, the swearing in of a jury, a call over, sentencing and so on.  You are there to observe what goes on in our court system.

1. Both you and your partner should remain at court as long as needed to obtain sufficient information to prepare your assignment of 800 to 1,000 words in total (ie. that includes both courts).  You should aim to write no more than about 500 words on each court.

1. Students should only need to attend the courts for approximately 1-2 hours as proceedings can be brief – particularly in the Magistrates Court.  District and Supreme Court proceedings may continue for days.  (Note:  students may remain as long or as briefly as they choose).

1. You are to come to an agreement with your partner as to which one will write up the Magistrates Court summary and which will write the District or Supreme Court summary. This is at your discretion. When it comes time to hand in your assignment, you are to attach both summaries (both parts), clearly stating the name of the author at the top of the relevant part to form a single assignment of both courts. Each part will be marked independently out of 20.

1. You are each responsible to ensure that you and your partner hand in an assignment that includes a summary of both courts.  Should your partner become ill, leave the course, or otherwise not attend the court, thus failing to create his or her agreed summary, you are responsible for writing the other part yourself so that you are in a position to hand in a complete assignment (containing both court summaries) – [of course with only your name on it].  This is why you must ensure that you attend both courts and take the appropriate notes so that, should it become necessary, you can finish the assignment yourself and submit it, and will be assessed out of 20.  If you submit an assignment which reports on only one court, you will be assessed out of 10 ONLY and automatically forfeit the other 10 marks.

1. If all goes according to plan, and you and your partner submit an assignment containing a summary of each court, each part will then be marked independently out of 20.  You are encouraged to swap your court summary with your partner for comment and for proof reading purposes. It is up to the author of each part whether or not he/she adopts or ignores the other person’s recommendations. You are free to assist each other and create the entire document together provided that when it comes time to writing it up, each person writes at least half of the assignment i.e. one court each must be actually written by each student.

1. If you have special circumstances that prevent you from working in a group, you may approach the lecturers and request that you do the assignment by yourself.  If you are permitted to work alone or you do not have a partner because of late enrolment, for example, you must write the entire assignment yourself.  Please note this at the top of the first page of your assignment in BOLD. This will alert the marker to the fact that there is only one author.

10.  When submitting the assignment through SAFEassign on LearnJCU, fill in a cover page available online and attach to the two court summaries.

Tips on Court Etiquette:

• If you have any queries once you arrive at the courts, ask the uniformed Court Officer for assistance;
• When you enter the courts You MUST BE QUIET;
• A small bow while facing the front of the court (the Crest) before entering or leaving is customary and shows respect;
• Dress neatly and conservatively with closed shoes (not thongs);
• Should anyone speak to you, be polite and courteous;
• Sit at the back of the courts or in the public gallery in the District or Supreme Courts;
• Do not approach the Bench, Clerks of the court or Judge’s associates etc. during the course of the proceedings, but you may wish to speak with them at the end of proceedings.
• Stand whenever the judge or magistrate enters or leaves the courtroom.
• If there is paper blocking the windows of a Magistrate Court do not enter as the court is closed to the public.

DO NOT use tape recorders or bring them into the courtroom.

Writing the Assignment

Each person working in a group is to prepare and submit an assignment of 800 to 1,000 WORDS about the two courts visited by your group.  Words over that limit will not be read.  As you are not law students, you are not expected to produce a legal assignment.  Rather, you are to write about what you observe while at the courts.  Difficult legal terminology is to be avoided.  Instead, you should pay particular attention to punctuation, spelling, grammar and expression, as these will be a focus for the marking.  Assignments should be double line spaced in essay form (not in point form).

You may write in the first person if you prefer, however, law assignments are usually written in the third person.  Ensure you construct full sentences and that you set your spell-check on your computers to ‘English’ and NOT ‘American’ spelling. Marks may be lost for the American version of spelling.  Subheadings are encouraged and these do not form part of the word count. Your work must be original and there is no need for students to use textbooks or other materials. However, if you do use any such materials you are to include a full reference to the materials in a bibliography.  Various style guides or style manuals for authors are available at the library such as: Style Manual for authors, editors and printers, John Wiley & Sons, 2002, 6^th ed.

Content: This is a Guide only.  Assignments may contain some or all of the following:

• Date and time of visit
• Which court/s you attended
• Who was presiding (the name of the judge or magistrate)
• Nature of proceedings (criminal/civil etc.)
• A brief summary of the matter including – name of the parties, solicitors or barristers appearing, nature of the dispute, summary of the arguments, the decision of the magistrate or judge (if any)
• Include a summary of your personal observations and whether you think you gained something from your visit to the courts.

There will be no marks allocated to photographs or diagrams so please do not include cartoons or other symbols in the body of your assignment. Newspaper clippings of the trial are interesting and are welcome if you wish to attach them to your assignment, but again, they will not be assessable.

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