Communication and Advocacy Skills
CAS integrates the 'theoretical' principles concerning effective communication, legal principles, and 'hands on' or 'actually doing' the particular skill. Students learn by a process of incremental experience, building upon learned skills, week by week.
Overview
Communication and Advocacy Skills (CAS) was one of the first electives designed in 1992 for the then fledgling law program. The idea behind this subject was to give students some experience in the practical realities of interviewing clients and witnesses, preparing to run a sentencing plea, and preparing to conduct a trial either civil or criminal. The specific litigation-based skills included conducting an examination-in-chief, cross-examination and re-examination. The application of these skills takes place within an adversarial legal system, a particular set of ethical rules and obligations, and a complex range of evidentiary and procedural rules. All of these inform the application of the practical skills. CAS was designed by John Willis and Chris Corns, who continue to teach the subject. John has extensive experience as a member of the Victorian Bar, specialising in criminal litigation, and Chris was a member of the Victorian Bar for approximately eight years, also specialising in criminal matters.
CAS integrates the `theoretical principles concerning effective communication, legal principles, and 'hands on' or actually doing the particular skill. Students learn by a process of incremental experience, building upon learned skills, week by week. Over the last 14 years, John and Chris have been able to refine the subject so that the key, most essential skills become the focus.
Guest speakers have included Professor Martine Powell, one of Australia's experts in interviewing children, and a representative from the Victoria Police Video and Taped Evidence Program, again focussing on techniques for interviewing child complainants in sexual offence cases.
Assessment
There are several forms of assessment. First, students complete a research project on a topic relating to communication or advocacy. This can be a court based observation project, comparing the performance of advocates in the higher and lower courts. Or, students can research a specific category of witnesses who experience particular types of communication problems in courts. The second form of assessment is by way of several practical exercises where, for example, students working in pairs, take a witness through their evidence in chief or cross examination. In other weeks, students may present a plea at sentencing.
One of the assessed exercises is the forensic moot court. For a number of years La Trobe University and the Victoria Police Forensic Services Centre (VPFSC) have offered a post-graduate Diploma in Forensic Science. As part of that program, John and Chris provide a unit called Experts and the Law. In addition, CAS students are provided with the opportunity to work with the forensic science students, or practising forensic scientists from the VPFSC, by taking the expert witness through their evidence in a moot court setting. This practical exercise is located within a solid analysis in class of the rules governing the admissibility of expert testimony. We believe this multi-disciplinary, shared learning program is unique in Australia.
More information
For more information about single subject studies, please refer to the following page.
