Out of the Classroom: Court Visits, Trial Observation and Internship
Chapter Thirty-Three
Syllabus topic 2, "Methods of Teaching - Merits and demerits"
Pages 121 to 124 of 543
In one line
Two of the three components of the compulsory moot court paper happen outside the college: the student must watch two real trials and keep a record, and must observe client interviews and the preparation of documents in a lawyer's office and keep a diary.
In the wording a student can write in an exam: under paper 24 of Schedule II of the Rules of Legal Education 2008 a student must observe two trials, one civil and one criminal, over the last two or three years of the course, maintaining a record of the steps observed on each day of attendance, which carries thirty marks; and must observe two client interviewing sessions at a lawyer's office or legal aid office and the preparation of documents and court papers and the procedure for filing, recording both in a diary, each carrying fifteen marks within a further thirty.
What the Schedule requires, exactly
Component (b), observance of trial in two cases, one civil and one criminal, thirty marks. Students may be required to attend two trials in the course of the last two or three years of their studies. They maintain a record and enter the various steps observed during their attendance on different days in the court assignment.
Component (c), interviewing techniques, pre-trial preparations and internship diary, thirty marks. Each student observes two interviewing sessions of clients at a lawyer's office or a legal aid office and records the proceedings in a diary, which carries fifteen marks; and each student further observes the preparation of documents and court papers by the advocate and the procedure for filing a suit or petition, recorded in the diary, which carries the other fifteen.
And the fourth component is a viva voce of ten marks on all three aspects, so the diary and the trial record are examined orally as well as read.
Note what the Schedule is doing. It is not recommending that students see a court. It is prescribing a number of visits, a record, a mark allocation and an oral examination on it.
Court visits and trial observation
Merits. A student sees that a trial is not what a textbook describes: it is adjournments, waiting, a bench under pressure, and a great deal of paper. That single correction is worth a term of procedure teaching.
It shows the profession as work. Filing, listing, service, the clerk's role and the physical bundle are all invisible from a classroom.
It joins the syllabus together. In one morning a student sees pleadings, issues, evidence and argument, which are four separate chapters in a course.
It costs the college almost nothing, which is the same point as the moot court: this is not a resource-constrained method.
Out of the Classroom: Court Visits, Trial Observation and Internship
And it makes the client visible. A student who has watched a litigant wait all day for a two minute adjournment understands access to justice differently, which is the connection to chapter 40 and to Module II.
Demerits. Attendance is easily faked, and a record can be written from imagination. Without direction a student sees an incomprehensible hour and learns nothing. Courts are not organised for observers, and a large group is a nuisance to the court. What is seen is accidental: a student may attend three times and see only adjournments. And the record can become a formality, filled in at the end of the year.
Internship and the office
Merits. The office is where most legal work actually happens, and it is invisible from both the classroom and the courtroom. Drafting, advice, negotiation, file management and client handling are all office work.
Observing an interview teaches what no simulation can, because the client is real, unrehearsed and often distressed.
It builds contacts and destinations. For many students the internship is how they find the work they eventually do.
And the diary makes it reflective rather than passive. A student required to record what happened has to notice it.
Demerits. Placements are unequally available: a student with family in the profession gets a good one and another gets photocopying. Supervision quality is entirely outside the college's control. Interns are used as labour. Confidentiality is a real problem, since a diary describing a real client's affairs is a document that should not circulate, and no rule tells the student how to handle it. And the marks depend on a document the college cannot verify.
Making the two components real
Prepare the visit. A student sent to a court with a list of things to look for, the stage the case is at and two questions to answer sees a different morning from a student sent to watch.
Debrief it. The same rule as chapter 280: the learning is in the review.
Structure the diary. A form asking what stage was observed, what document was produced, what was said and what the student did not understand produces a record that is worth marking.
Anonymise. A diary should record the transaction and not the client, which is where a student meets professional confidentiality for the first time and should be taught it.
And use the viva. Ten marks of oral examination on the diary is what makes a fabricated record risky, and Schedule II provides it precisely for that reason.
A worked example
Two students complete the paper 24 requirements.
Aarav attends two trials on days chosen at random, writes a page each, and does an internship in which he photocopies for three weeks. His diary records three weeks of attendance. He can answer nothing in the viva beyond what a textbook says.
Out of the Classroom: Court Visits, Trial Observation and Internship
Ritika is told before each visit which stage of the suit she will see and is given two questions. In her first visit she watches issues being framed and records that the pleadings had to be read to find them; in her second she watches a criminal trial and records that the witness's statement differed from the police record and how the court handled it. In her internship she sits in on two interviews and records, in her diary, that the advocate asked no question for the first four minutes and that the client's most important fact came out unprompted at the end.
Both submit a diary and a record. Both attended. In the viva the difference is total, which is why the Schedule made the viva part of the mark and why an answer on this method should say that structure, not access, is what separates a useful placement from a wasted one.
Quick revision
Schedule II, paper 24, components (b) and (c): two trials, one civil and one criminal, over the last two or three years, with a record of the steps observed on each day, thirty marks; two client interviewing sessions recorded in a diary, fifteen marks, and observation of the preparation of documents and the procedure for filing, fifteen marks; plus a ten mark viva on all three aspects.
Court visits: correct the textbook picture, show the profession as work, join the syllabus together, cost nothing and make the client visible; but attendance is fakeable, what is seen is accidental, and the record becomes a formality.
Internship: shows the office, where most legal work happens, teaches from real client interviews and builds destinations; but placements are unequally available, supervision is outside the college's control, interns are used as labour, and confidentiality in the diary is unaddressed.
Four fixes: prepare the visit, debrief it, structure the diary, and anonymise it. The viva is what makes a fabricated record risky.
Test yourself
1. State the two out-of-classroom components of paper 24 with their marks. Observance of trial in two cases, one civil and one criminal, over the last two or three years of the course, with a record of the steps observed on different days, carrying thirty marks; and observation of two client interviewing sessions recorded in a diary for fifteen marks, together with observation of the preparation of documents and court papers and the procedure for filing, for a further fifteen.
2. Give two merits and two demerits of trial observation. Merits: it corrects the textbook picture of a trial, showing adjournments, waiting and paper; and it joins several parts of the syllabus together in one morning. Demerits: attendance and the record are easily fabricated; and what a student sees is accidental, so three visits may show nothing but adjournments.
Out of the Classroom: Court Visits, Trial Observation and Internship
3. What ethical problem does the internship diary raise, and how should it be met? It records a real client's affairs in a document that will be read and marked, so confidentiality is engaged. The diary should record the transaction and not the client, and the point should be taught expressly, since this is where a student first meets professional confidentiality.
4. Why does Schedule II attach a viva to these components? Because the record and the diary are documents the college cannot verify. An oral examination on them makes a fabricated record risky and turns the requirement into something that can actually be assessed.
The rest of this subject
These notes are cut from the University's printed syllabus. Open the syllabus itself, or the past papers, for the same subject.