Legal Study News

On the 27th of April the Year 11 Legal Studies class and our teacher, Miss Clarke, jumped into a bus and headed to Armidale to sit in on some of the District Court cases. When we arrived at the courthouse, we were greeted by Sophie, the courthouse registrar who gave us a tour of the courthouse and talked to us about all of the different rooms, the Local and the District courts and the roles of the people in the courtroom. We then met the sheriff who is there to keep everyone safe in case of an emergency. We were fortunate enough to have the judge come and speak to us before the hearings started and tell us a bit about how he became a judge and what being a judge entails. Then the court hearings started. We listened to two sentencing hearings over the course of a few hours. The defendants were over the screen for both hearings as not all of them were being held in Armidale. After both hearings concluded, the judge answered more questions that we had. Then, after the hearings and asking the judge questions, we met up with Miss Clarke’s sister Nicole who is the assistant manager at Youth Justice NSW. She told us what her job required and about the services provided to young people. Part of her role is to support young people involved in, or at risk of being in the criminal justice system. The service provides offence-focused intervention programs and supervises young people on community orders. It was a great opportunity to extend our understanding of the role and functioning of the Australian Legal System. 

Alison Lockwood.