Dont Play the Odds; Play the Man

To make up for my fairly lack-luster post last week; tonight we will be analysing the Evidence coursework. its almost due so we best get this done. Oh the title?... yeah its not very relevant. I just really wanted to say that. Anyway moving on. This question is set out pretty nicely. It's in bullet points in pretty much the structure you want it to be; so lets leave that till last shall we. For now; lets focus on the examiner

The target audience is Tariq. And if you've been paying attention; he wants information laid out in front of him in a specific way. Yes, the coursework concerns the Law of Evidence; but its also a criminal trial. This means that on your opening paragraph, you should dedicate a sentence or two to discuss what the charges are. A non-fatal offence (at least assault but it could be more) and an inchoate offence of kidnapping. Now we all did criminal Law so you should be aware of the main cases for these crimes.... so throw them in there! Also mention what court this would likely be held in and maybe even the possible sentences for such crimes.

Now we move on to the meat of the coursework. I started with who normally has the legal burden of proof then move on to the witnesses. The fact that the first 3 witnesses are  for the prosecution is very important. With regards to competence and compelability; the rules vary on which side you're on. Lastly, keep an eye on the witnesses special characteristics which should be referred to due to it's significance. Pat (Spouse of accused), Bart (Under-aged), Scott (Not in the scene of the crime: Hearsay) and Denise (Spouse of the accused, for the defence, reluctant, not in the scene of the crime: Character)

Paul G,
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Putting the Pro In Procrastination

It seems I'm getting a little bit too cocky. Due to the fact that I breezed through my first coursework this year; I cant seem to bring myself to do my other coursework early. Even right now as I'm writing this blog; I have a video about JazzPunk on the window next to this one. Disclaimer: I am NOT endorsing procrastination in any way; I'm just writing about how my week went.

This week; I aimed to complete my evidence coursework. I spend 3 days so far for this task. But thanks to hours upon hours of procrastination; I was only able to do just over 1000 words. That's less than half! Ive been watching videos, watching TV, playing Skyrim.......Skyrim..... umm... be right back...

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So yeah; as I was saying, I havent been very productive this week. I urge you to avoid doing what I'm doing. As some of you may be able to tell; even this blog isnt very...meaty..... yeah; meaty is the right word. The important thing when you are procrastinating is to be fully aware that you are and then proceed to getting out of the loop. And if that fails; you should at least make sure that you are doing productive stuff whilst procrastinating. So clean your room! lol

Paul G,
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The Rough Road Ahead

Due to recent Law reforms; this career path is about to become really hard. Competition for job will get very competitive. As such; if you are currently studying Law, plan ahead! Apply for as many different placements, scholarships, training contracts, pupillage and everything else in between. My lecturer keeps stating that 100 applications will get you 6 interviews... and 6 interviews will get you 1 job. This career path is fierce!

I applied for the Law Commission this week. THE Law Commission. The 16 placements available are offered to the world at large. This means that they should receive stacks upon stacks of applications and they will do ANYTHING to decrease that pile. Spend as much time as possible on each of your applications. I had to read the instructions VERY carefully and follow everything to the letter. On an online application; if they ask you to label a document as "LawCom <your name>" and you mistakenly label it as "Lawcom <your name>"; you risk your application getting rejected on the get go. So be very careful; dont give them an excuse to not read your full application... if you do; they will use it.

Paul G,
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Choosing Universities

Today, the topic for discussion are the events leading up to choosing a University. Statistics with regards to which University is best for your course varies with each course. However, there is generally one thing that remains constant. Students either (a) attempts to get as far away as possible from where they've been studying previously, or (b) they attempt to be as close as possible... both choices are for personal reasons. Regardless; attending open-days is a great idea.

Now if you're secondary school was a good one, there should have been trips for your whole year to attend some of these. If your primary school did the same thing; there is a slight difference in concept. In primary school; it would have been for touring purposes but for secondary school onwards; it should be for the purposes of scouting what University is good for you.

I only ever attended an open day for two Universities. Twice to the University of Hertfordshire and once to the University of Bedfordshire. The first time at Hertfordshire was with my secondary school. It was pretty standard. There was a mock trial, showed off the lecture theatres and I rolled around in the grass (I always wanted to roll around in University grass). The second visit was less fun as I didnt have the company of my school mates... it as a bunch of other strangers for the same open day and they showed off the same features.

The open day in the University of Bedfordshire was a little different. Whereas the previous location conducted a mock trial in a normal classroom; Bedfordshire showed off their fancy moot court which was impressive.... but oddly enough; they didn't use it to demonstrate a moot. (But since I've been in Bedfordshire; I have since taken part in a moot to demonstrate the room for 6th formers during their open day... so I guess that issue is fixed now). What both Universities failed to draw attention to is location, location, location.

Hertfordshire is a fair distance away from the town centre making your choice of activities during your little one hour breaks very limited. Bedfordshire on the other hand was right in the middle of town. In addition to that, There are courts and law firms dotted everywhere.... and I mean everywhere! this is a big plus. Maybe they should mention this from now on dont you think? ;)

Paul G,
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Missing Deadlines

As you can probably see; I missed the Friday post. But don't worry; in addition to this one, there will be another post this Friday. Hopefully I don’t do the same thing for my coursework. Speaking of which; I got an A-for my first 3rd year assessment. It helps to make sure that your dissertation is something you enjoy.

My dissertation is about video-gaming! This means that I can just chill around watching youtube videos that I would normally watch anyway; and then I manage to pick-up something for this dissertation. Then I just pull-up my notes and write down what I’ve learnt

The Equity & Trusts coursework deadline is coming up and its time to look over what I’ve already written. Before you hand-in your coursework; its a very good idea to re-read it. As for me; I finished the coursework a few weeks back and looking-over the work can bring about new ideas which I may have missed.

Nothing much else happened really. It was a pretty uneventful week. As I said before; blogs will still be posted on Friday so stay-tuned.

Paul G,

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Bite-sized

With the first week back; Students have to get back into the normal course of things. This may seem scary as you have to change gear completely from relax mode to work mode; but all is not bad news. Just like you; the lecturers are going through the same shift too. This means that the workshops or seminars are going to be easier than normal (and in some cases; it might not even be on that week). You can use this as an opportunity to ease yourself slowly into the student life again.

So long as you keep an eye on deadlines; you can complete your coursework in a peace-meal fashion. Just work at it every now and then and divide the work based on the weeks you have. You will find that you still have plenty of time. If you check BREO; you should be able to find the coursework outline. Obviously the most important bit is the question. But if you keep an eye out; you can find a section where the lecturer practically tells you what they expect. Your job is to break this down into several bite-size pieces.

For example; just above the equity & trusts course-study case-list, you can find this little gem:

“The candidate must show an awareness of the context of the case. Thus the case study should outline and analyse the state of the law prior to the case. This should include all policy reasons and values underlying the particular area of the law. Then the study should identify what if any deficiencies there were in this area of law which gave rise to this case. The case should be viewed as an attempt to resolve a particular problem and the candidate must assess how successful this solution was. The latter might involve a treatment of how the case has been dealt with in later decisions. The student should look to identify any remaining difficulties and offer some suggestions on how they might be resolved by looking at academic suggestions.”

You need to develop the skill to turn THAT into:

l Context of the case

l What was the Law BEFORE the case?

l What policies did the judges consider?

l What problem were they attempting to solve?

l Impact of the Judgment

l Remaining difficulties

l Reform based on academic suggestions

These points should pretty much form the basis for your answer. Mastering how to break down the work in this way can prove to be very useful with EVERY coursework.

Paul G,

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Showtime

Its 2014. And with that marks the end of our Christmas break. It's time to gear up and get back to the standard swing of things. Keep an eye on those deadlines. Write them down somewhere if you have to... and most importantly; confirm with others that the dates you have written are correct. The handbooks you may have been given for your units MAY have inaccurate dates (I speculate that it might be due to the lecturers using template handbooks from previous years). So a good way to have the accurate dates for coursework is to look on BREO itself and access TurnItIn. From that page; you should be able to spot when the hand-in dead-line are.

A quick skim over your notes can work wonders to refresh your memory. And I mean QUICK. If you've been paying attention in class, chances are; it should all just come back to you with relative ease. After you've done that; its a pretty safe bet that the topics that came up in your coursework will not be assessed in the mid-year exams. But occasionally, lecturers are known to throw a curve-ball just to mess with you so there is a chance that it could come up again.

For this second term; some of the stuff you will be learning might be the ones that will be contained in the exams. So watch out for any topics that you feel the lecturers are putting significantly more importance than others. If you are unsure; just straight-up ask them. It may sound stupid when you ask: "are you giving us hints right now as to what will come up?".... but what's the worse that can happen? If you are wrong then the lecturer will just tell you no. But if you're right; then the information you will gain is an invaluable asset. Your course-mates will thank you for asking the question..... Well, they probably wont (because they're lawyers-in-training); but trust me... they're thanking you on the inside.

So that's it for today.

Paul G,
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