Professional Experience in Law (Innocence and Law Reform Project)

This unit involves students working on real criminal cases. The cases that will be selected are those where there is a tenable possibility that an accused was wrongly convicted or where the cases raises for consideration a seminal issue of law and could be a vehicle for law reform in the area of sentencing law. Students will be supervised by an academic and work with legal practitioners (solicitors and barristers) to first investigate if cases fit the criteria for the unit (ie tenable chance of innocence or vehicle for law reform) and then refer the matter to a Court of Appeal or in some instances file a petition of mercy. It aims to provide familiarity with the nature and variety of legal writing and the range of employment options available to graduates of the Bachelor of Laws.

Students who successfully complete this unit will be able to:

1. Conduct client interviews relating to appeals and sentencing and utilise the results.

2. Read and analyse court transcripts and files of evidence and evaluate for relevance

3. Understand the elements of the criminal appeal process

4. Interpret, evaluate and apply the law relating to sentencing and appeals to draft court documents