English and Humanities

Year 11 Legal Studies

by Kristine Hong Year 11 St Bakhita

As part of the changes incurred due to the Coronavirus pandemic, there have been no excursions to visit the Victorian Law Courts. The 2021 Year 11 Legal Studies Classes were given the opportunity to meet with Justice Patricia Riddell of the County Court of Victoria. We met Her Honour, via an online ZOOM meeting which took place as a replacement for visiting the County Court. At 9:20am both classes were seated and ready to begin the meeting with Judge Riddell. As we waited for Her Honour to arrive into the meet, we had the opportunity to talk with Jasmin, part of the Communication team from the County Court. She spoke of her experiences in going into Law, even though she had done Environmental Science as her first degree while in university. After a short while, Her Honour, Judge Riddell,  joined the online meeting and spoke of how the County Court worked. Her Honour told us that the County Court is the most busiest court in the Victorian Hierarchy. Her Honour works in the Criminal Division where the majority of the indictable cases are heard. Her Honour, Judge Riddell, told us some of her cases and she held a question and answer session. Judge Riddell turned into an interactive session. This was very interesting and Her Honour had us all engaged.

Her Honour, Judge Riddell, also spoke of her own pathway to becoming a Judge in the County Court. This appeared to be a long and arduous journey, given the fact that she went through law school, then became a solicitor, then a barrister and finally a Judge. She noted that she was more of a Defence Barrister even though she did both defending and prosecuting. As such, she has experienced the best of both worlds and that led to her becoming the County Court’s Judge in the Criminal Division. As a Judge, Her Honour hears many trials and appeals throughout a year and majority of the cases that she hears include murder, sexual assault or drug trafficking which are all indictable offences. 

Overall, the online meeting with Her Honour, Judge Riddell, her Judge’s Associate and Jasmin would be one that could never be forgotten given the time and the level of engagement that we had whilst listening to all of the explanations and experiences.

We are grateful to the staff of the County Court for allowing us to participate in this wonderful opportunity to gain an insight into the workings of the Court.