Unit 2 Legal Studies Excursion to the Magistrates’ & Supreme Courts

As a Legal Studies class we went to the Magistrates’ and Supreme Courts. We started off the day by taking the tram into the city and sitting outside looking at all the lawyers and judges in their formal outfits, before heading to the Magistrates’ Court. The entry looked a lot like airport security, with a conveyor belt in which to put our belongings to be checked as well as a metal detector we had to walk through. Unfortunately, someone's fork didn’t make it through security.

We then went into an empty courtroom to meet with Magistrate Medina, who answered some of our questions, before exploring some of the open courtrooms and observing the hearings as they took place. It was really interesting to see how efficiently cases were heard in the Magistrates’ Court and actually see the magistrates and lawyers in action! A definite highlight was seeing a woman argue to have two speeding fines dismissed and leading the Magistrate to question whether the police had enough evidence not to dismiss them. We then returned to the courtroom with Magistrate Medina for some final questions, before having a short lunch break.

After lunch, we headed over to the Supreme Court, which had similar security to the Magistrates’ Court. We were guided around the Supreme court by two volunteers, before meeting with Her Honour, Supreme Court Justice Richards, who was very happy to see us given she had children at Uni High up until last year. We had the chance to ask her questions and were also lucky enough to take on the roles of some different members in court such as the jury, witnesses or the barristers at the bar table.

Afterwards, we sat in the gallery to listen to 30 minutes of a murder case that was currently being heard in one of the Supreme Court rooms. We didn’t hear anything too gruesome, but rather listened to a forensic scientist being questioned on DNA transference on different types of surfaces as well as DNA shedding. Not what we were expecting, but interesting to witness all the same. With that the day was done and we all headed home.

Miranda Zabel (Y11)