Units

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Sample subject outline - Semester 1 2013

Note: Subject outlines often change before the semester begins. Below is a sample outline.

Rationale

As a legal practitioner, you will need to be able to identify legal issues, find and update relevant law, and analyse the law to apply it in order to be able to provide practical legal advice. A vital part of a practitioner's skills is the ability to communicate effectively to a diverse audience, for example, to a client, a court, a fellow legal practitioner or a government department. Therefore, this unit will give you the opportunity to develop basic skills relevant to future employment, professional practice and life-long learning. In this unit you will develop and practise your skills of research, analysis, problem solving and reasoning, and written communication. All of these skills are fundamental not only for the completion of your law degree, but for legal practice in all of its professional contexts.

Aims

The aim of this unit is for you to further develop, within real world contexts, the skills in legal research, analysis, problem solving and writing that were introduced in LWB145 Legal Foundations A and LWB147 Torts A. This aim is directed towards ensuring that by the end of the first year of your law degree you are able to perform tasks required to progress your study of law and that you can reflect on the continued development of your legal research and writing skills to equip you with the skills required in legal practice.

Objectives

At the completion of this unit you should be able to:
1. analyse legal problems by identifying legal issues, constructing arguments and making conclusions, offering practical legal solutions in a real world context; (GC1, GC2)
2. apply appropriate research methodologies to research primary and secondary legal sources; (GC2)
3. analyse legal authorities to identify principles and apply them to relevant to legal problems; (GC1, GC2)
4. effectively communicate in writing the results of legal research and problem solving to diverse audiences; (GC3)
5. appreciate the ethical obligations of lawyers and ethical standards in legal research and tertiary education; (GC6)
6. appreciate the wider international and social context within which legal research and analysis occurs; and (GC1, GC2)
7. work independently, manage your time effectively and reflect upon your own understanding and performance to develop strategies for improvement of your future legal research. (GC4, GC7)

Content

The material covered in this unit includes:

• Legal writing


• Legal referencing


• Problem solving and analysis


• Researching laws relevant to Australian jurisdictions, including international law

Graduate Capabilities
Your understanding of the unit content and the further development of skills will assist you to acquire the following law graduate capabilities:
1. Discipline Knowledge
2. Problem Solving, Reasoning and Research
3. Effective Communication
4. Life Long Learning
5. Work Independently and Collaboratively
6. Professional, Social and Ethical Responsibility
7. Characteristics of Self-Reliance and Leadership

For a full description of the law graduate capabilities see the LWB146 Blackboard site.

Approaches to Teaching and Learning

This unit is skills based to develop your graduate capabilities that relate to research and writing in a legal context. Therefore the unit is taught through a combination of face-to-face lectures and podcasts (to assist with your understanding of what is legal research and writing and the relevant sources of law) and tutorials (to allow you to practise and further develop your research and writing skills).
Study Guide
The Study Guide for the unit specifies the prescribed readings and tutorial exercises for each week of semester.
Online Materials
A variety of regularly updated online learning and teaching resources is made available via the Blackboard site for this unit.
Lectures
There is a one hour lecture timetabled for weeks 1-12 of the semester and are supported by PowerPoint presentations. For external students, the lectures are audio taped and made available through the unit Blackboard site. Some lectures will be delivered by podcast.
Tutorials
One and a half hour tutorials are timetabled for weeks 1-12 of the semester. For external students, the tutorial guides will be available each week on the Blackboard site as audio files. In tutorials you will be taught and have the opportunity to practice legal research and writing skills that will be assessed in the tutorial workbook review, client file, memo of advice and exam.
Compulsory External Attendance School
There is a compulsory external attendance school mid-way in the semester where your skills of legal research and problem solving will be developed and some tutorial workbook review tasks assessed.
Student Peer Mentors
In this unit students may choose to attend student peer mentor sessions that are timetabled for one hour a week for six weeks. External students can participate in the student peer mentor sessions through the unit's Blackboard site.

Assessment

In this unit you will be graded on a scale of one to seven. Assessment in this unit is both summative and formative. The summative assessment consists of tutorial workbook review, a client file, memo of advice and e-portfolio reflection, and an exam.

Overview of Assessment:

Internal Students:
Summative assessment will be based on your tutorial workbook review client file, memo of advice and reflection and an end of semester open book exam.

External Students:
Summative assessment will be based on your tutorial workbook review (at least one of which will occur at external school), client file, memo of advice and reflection and an end of semester open book exam.


Faculty Assessment Information
To access the Law Faculty Assessment Information see the Blackboard site for this unit.Formative assessment is designed to provide you with feedback on your skills development or attainment of understanding of law examined in this unit. In this unit you will receive formative feedback before the end of semester exam through:

• Tutor and peer feedback during tutorials (internal students);


• The external school (external students);


• The individual feedback from the self assessment, peer and tutor review of your tutorial workbook


• The online materials on the unit's Blackboard site;


• The individual written feedback on your client file and criteria sheet;


• The individual written feedback on your memo of advice and criteria sheet;


• The generic feedback on the client file placed on the unit's Blackboard site;


• The generic feedback on the memo of advice placed on the unit's Blackboard site;

Examples of completed assessment items from previous years will be available on the unit Blackboard site and

• The option of private consultation with a member of the teaching team during student consultation.

You should reflect upon the feedback (both your individual and generic feedback as provided on Blackboard) for the purpose of identifying:

• gaps in your knowledge and understanding of the rules of statutory interpretation;


• inadequacies in your skills of locating and updating cases and legislation;


• inadequacies in your skill of writing and referencing in correct legal style;


• strategies to improve your problem solving, research skills, written communication and statutory interpretation; and


• areas for improvement for future studies within the LLB.

You should record your work, the feedback and your reflection, noting your strategies for improvement, in your Student e-Portfolio. This links with learning outcome 7.

Assessment name: Client File
Description: You will be given a client file containing various materials, such as notes from client interviews and instructions from a senior partner of a law firm based on a real world scenario. Working through the file you will be required to plan and undertake the research required to address the client's problem, and draft an outline answer.

Page limit: 12 pages - up to 10 pages for research and 2 pages for answer outline
Relates to objectives: 1-7
Weight: 30%
Internal or external: Both
Group or individual: Individual
Due date: Week 8

Assessment name: Memo of Advice/e-Portfolio
Description: Memo of Advice and Student e-Portfolio Reflection

You will write a memo of advice to your senior partner providing your legal advice on the client's situation based on the research undertaken in your client file. You will also reflect on the development of your skills in legal research and writing gained throughout this unit and how you might continue to improve these skills.
Word count: 2500 words
Relates to objectives: 1-7
Weight: 30%
Internal or external: Both
Group or individual: Individual
Due date: Week 12

Assessment name: Examination
Description: The exam will assess the extent to which you have gained a knowledge and understanding of legal research methodology and planning, legal research sources (both Australian and international), the ethical obligations of lawyers and ethical standards in legal research and tertiary education, and legal writing style. The exam will be open book and comprise a combination of multiple choice, short answer, essay and problem style questions.
Relates to objectives: 1-7
Weight: 30%
Internal or external: Both
Group or individual: Individual
Due date: Central Exam Period

Assessment name: Tutorial Workbook Review
Description: You will be required to progressively complete a tutorial workbook during the semester which will include a real world legal problem and a series of research and writing exercises (eg. a client letter). Internal students will complete some of these exercises during tutorials and external students will complete selected exercises at the compulsory external attendance school and the remainder will be completed in the students' own time in preparation for participation in tutorial discussions. The workbook will be assessed by a review of a maximum of three activities across the semester. The reviews will involve a combination of self and peer review of up to three activities and tutor observation of the progressive completion of the workbook.

Due Date: Maximum three reviews across semester (TBA)
External students will undertake at least one review at External School in Week 7
Relates to objectives: 1-7
Weight: 10%
Internal or external: Both
Group or individual: Individual
Due date: See Description

Academic Honesty

QUT is committed to maintaining high academic standards to protect the value of its qualifications. To assist you in assuring the academic integrity of your assessment you are encouraged to make use of the support materials and services available to help you consider and check your assessment items. Important information about the university's approach to academic integrity of assessment is on your unit Blackboard site.

A breach of academic integrity is regarded as Student Misconduct and can lead to the imposition of penalties.

Resource materials

Prescribed Materials
LWB146 Study Guide

Recommended References
Cook, Creyke, Geddes and Hamer, Laying Down the Law (LexisNexis Butterworths, Sydney: 7th ed, 2009).
AI MacAdam and TM Smith, Statutes - Rules and Examples (Butterworths, Sydney: 3rd ed, 1993).
R Macdonald and D Clarke-Dickson, Clear and Precise - Writing Skills for Today's Lawyer (Thomson Custom Publishing, Sydney: 2nd ed, 2005).
Michael Meehan and Graham Tulloch, Grammar for Lawyers (LexisNexis Butterworths, Sydney: 2nd ed, 2007).
Sue Milne and Kay Tucker, A Practical Guide to Legal Research (Thomson Lawbook Co, Sydney: 2008).
Bruce Bott, Jill Cowley and Lynette Falconer, Nemes and Coss' Effective Legal Research (LexisNexis Butterworths, Chatswood: 3rd ed, 2007.
DC Pearce and RS Geddes, Statutory Interpretation in Australia (LexisNexis, Australia: 6th ed, 2006).

Blackboard site
Online resources for this unit are available on the unit blackboard site.

Risk assessment statement

Online resources for this unit are available on the unit blackboard site.

Disclaimer - Offer of some units is subject to viability, and information in these Unit Outlines is subject to change prior to commencement of semester.

Last modified: 22-May-2012