Becoming a crown prosecutor? (1 Viewer)

[michaeln36]

Hey,
i was just wondering if any of u know the steps one would take to become a crown prosecutor, and at what age u'd have expected to have completed these steps:

eg. complete law - 5 years
work as solicitor - x years .... or however it goes?

Thanks

 

[Demandred]

About 10 years or so?

 

[7th Sign]

DOnt you need good ties in the law community to become a crown prosecutor?

I am thinking it would take about 15 year inc uni stuff...

 

[santaslayer]

I'd say:

1) Apply for a job there

2) hope to get the job.

 

[hfis]

I'd guess about 10-15 years. It was my goal at first, but then I realized that they get paid absolute peanuts compared to those in private practice, and their job tends to be harder too.

 

[melsc]

Your ambitions are similar to mine :uhhuh: I'm hoping to start in the DPP straight away. The money isn't too bad considering they are offering PLT placements paying $47 000 pa too bad I'm only in first year, I could use a job.

 

[michaeln36]

Your ambitions are similar to mine :uhhuh: I'm hoping to start in the DPP straight away. The money isn't too bad considering they are offering PLT placements paying $47 000 pa too bad I'm only in first year, I could use a job.

so u can go straight from uni into prosecuting? What is PLT? some type of assistant to a prosecutor or something?

Do u need practical court experience (ie. work as a barrister etc) before u can join the DPP?

The whole defending criminals thing kinda irks me out ... i would prefer to be on the prosecuting side the whole time (eg. even if u need practical experience, can u start off working for the council as some small time person or something?)

 

[michaeln36]

oh melsc, and i noticed that u were doing a B Social Science (Criminology) with your law degree.... is that better for if u hope to get into prosecuting?
because i wanted to combine with economics ...

 

[melsc]

Oh you are an 06er, sorry I thought you were a law student. Let me explain properly then

PLT is Practical legal training, after you complete a B Laws you must undertake this training at the school of law before you can be admitted as a solicitor, this training involves work experience and study at either the college of law or as part of your degree.

The DPP is currently offering paid positions for those people undertaking the PLT which means they are pretty much working there straight away, you wouldnt exactly be prosecuting but you would be working there. You can also do some work experience (either paid or voluntary) while at uni to get a feel for things and this is encouraged.

If you wanted to Prosecute as a Barrister you would have to take the bar exams and do the bar practice course at some time, but i think you could do soliticor work for the DPP while/before you are doing that but I am not entirely sure. Taking the bar also means you would work with a barrister for a year I think it is you are sort of like their aprentice.

I hope I made sense and all the info made sense but I'll give you some links

DPP NSW site http://www.odpp.nsw.gov.au/
Info about requirements for becomming a solicitor and PLT http://www.lawsociety.com.au/page.asp?partID=749
Infor abt the Bar - http://www.nswbar.asn.au/Professional/Profdevt/Prep4Bar/startpractice.htm

Good Luck

EDIT: I just noticed your last post. I'm not entirely sure how much it will help me, Criminology is similar to law and differnt at the same time (I dont know much though I've only been at uni for two weeks) although I have been told it will be somewhat beneficial, however I mainly chose it because I wasn't interested in anything else and it sounded interesting and the kind of think that I'd like to study However I strongly urge you to study what you are interested in and not what MIGHT help your career prospects, if you hate it you wont do well and it wont be any help :uhhuh:

However if you are considering Criminology in a combined law program it is only avaliable at UWS , you can do the degree at UNSW but not combined with law. No other uni's have the Criminology major in their soc sci degree that is combined with law.

 

[santaslayer]

Prosecuting is always harder than defending!

 

[ManlyChief]

On a related topic ...

The thought of having a crminial justice system staffed wholly of dedicated 'prosecutors' and 'defence' lawyers makes sad. Any system that reflects the US justice system's career prosecutor (in the person of the DA) v career defender antagonism I think would be obscene.

I think it is important for legal practitioners involved in criminal law to experience both sides of the case.

 

[melsc]

Some prosecutors do a bit of defending don't they?

 

[LaraB]

Some prosecutors do a bit of defending don't they?

yeh i know some that do A lot that stuff got allocated to via work do both. The larger firms seemed to specialise in one or the other, or at least have 'departments' that specialised, but a lot of the smaller or sole private practices seemed to do both.

 

[LaraB]

oh melsc, and i noticed that u were doing a B Social Science (Criminology) with your law degree.... is that better for if u hope to get into prosecuting?
because i wanted to combine with economics ...

Not better, not worse... A lot of the stuff that people do in criminology frmo what they tell me, overlaps with the law units. It may be beneficial to you if you're really hell bent on doing criminal law and criminal law only, but if you want to do economics for whateevr reason - i'd suggest you stick with that.

Having 2 totally different disciplines will possibly leave more options as far as career, open to you. Especially since if you did criminology and law and decided after a few years that you couldn't stand criminal law, you may have been better off with a different 2nd degree

 

[melsc]

They did say that the most popular social science major with law students is Criminology, however you don't have to pick your major straight away, you need an idea of which ones you are considering doing when you pick your units but its not the end of the world if you change your mind.

I am doing the two core Criminology and Psychology units this year at the end i could pick either if I really wanted to.

 

[michaeln36]

ty very much for info