HUMANITIES

YEAR 12 LEGAL STUDENTS ADDRESSED BY MAGISTRATE AYRES

On Tuesday 4 September, the entire Year 12 Legal cohort had the pleasure of being spoken to by a highly regarded Magistrate, Julian Ayres. He gave us a rewarding insight into the methods of the criminal justice system and his daily routine of delivering sanctions and civil remedies to a number of accused and plaintiffs.

Even more interesting, we learnt that his career involved many locations, including courthouses in Frankston, Springvale and Moorabbin! Magistrate Ayres further explained what factors he must take into consideration when sentencing someone such as mitigating and aggravating factors.

In addition, Magistrate Ayres explained to us the complexity of the cases he deals with, such as petty theft and culpable driving, although all criminal cases start in the Magistrate Court at a committal proceeding. He also took questions at the end, which was really great as most of the questions being asked were ones on everyone’s minds.

Further, students that were interested in law and legal studies in 2019 were given a great opportunity to learn about how Magistrate Ayres accomplished his degree; giving an insight into how we can follow his path of a double degree in law/arts.

Ultimately, students delved into the world of Magistrates, and the importance of them in the legal justice system; to achieve the principles of fairness, equality and access.

Sophie Muller and Angelina Pappas

Year 12 Legal Studies students

Listening to the Magistrate guest speaker, gave us an opportunity to connect what we had learnt about the law to how it is applied in a real Magistrates’ Court.

Being able to hear things ‘first hand’ brought to light the great need for Magistrates in Victoria and the lives that are impacted from the gradual changes in our legal system and society.

Finally, we were able to have an insight into the personal aspects and struggles that come with that career, something that cannot be found in a textbook.

Cyrene Sparks

Year 12 Legal Studies student

YEAR 11 LEGAL STUDIES STUDENTS REFLECT ON GUEST SPEAKER- CLAIRE JONES (LAWYER)

I thought the session spent with Claire Jones was very enlightening. As a result of her speech, Maxy and I are now even more seriously considering indulging in a career within the justice system and the law. Her insightful words and interesting anecdote about abalone gave us an idea of real life experiences in the fields of legal aid, property law and commercial law.

Daisy Assauw and Maxy Manev

Year 11 Legal Studies students

We found Claire Jones very inspiring and informative as she gave interesting information as well as a real life case that made the experience enjoyable. She was very experienced in her field of expertise and seemed passionate about her job. She also informed us that you don’t need to get the 99.95 ATAR to get into law and that there are many different pathways that you can take if it is something that you really want to pursue.

Georgia Tsoukalas and Kirsty Vanderzyden

Year 11 Legal Studies students

I learnt that there is more to law than just criminal and civil law. Claire explained to us the skills necessary to be a lawyer and how law firms don't look for the smartest people, they look for people who are able to make conversation and have great social skills. They also need to be able to analyse situations quickly and try to be neutral at all times. She explained how to cope with defending ‘bad’ people. She said that instead of thinking of all the bad things they have done, try to make their situation better and to help them stop these bad actions.

Overall, I enjoyed the talk and learnt a lot from Claire.

Nick Holten

Year 11 Legal Studies student