Civil Procedure or Evidence? (1 Viewer)

[RogueAcademic]

Doing a bit of course planning - I was told that it is advisable to have at least completed Torts and Contracts before applying for summer/winter clerkships.

What about Civil Procedure and Evidence? I have a choice of doing either one this year or next year. Which do you recommend I do first this year? (Doing both this year would mean I would be overloading my enrolment above the recommended 'full time' progression).

 

[hfis]

Probably Civil Procedure. At UOW, Procedure is a preresquite for Evidence, though in practice there appears to be no real reason for it. Doing the subject should give you some easy marks, and will help you better understand how the legal process works from start to finish - which is much more important for a paralegal to know when compared to Evidence, the rules of which would most likely be handled by your supervising solicitor or the barrister running the case.

 

[RogueAcademic]

Probably Civil Procedure. At UOW, Procedure is a preresquite for Evidence, though in practice there appears to be no real reason for it. Doing the subject should give you some easy marks, and will help you better understand how the legal process works from start to finish - which is much more important for a paralegal to know when compared to Evidence, the rules of which would most likely be handled by your supervising solicitor or the barrister running the case.

Thanks for the clear explanation, makes a lot of sense. I'll sign up for Civ Pro.

What did you mean by 'easy marks' though, is it usually perceived as an easy subject?

 

[hfis]

At UOW, certainly, and from what I've heard from other law students, it's pretty much the same across the board. Every problem question can essentially be answered by reading straight from the Uniform Civil Procedure Rules (UCPR), and the case law is minimal. Questions tend to be along the following lines:

1. You need to serve defendant X. X is currently out of the country/in another state/refusing service/murdering process servers. How do you legally serve X under the UCPR?

2. While golfing, Y got hit in the back of the head with a golf ball. Y wishes to sue for negligence. How does Y (a) identify the defendant, (b) serve the defendant, (c) put together his statement of claim.

3. Defendant Z's solicitors send you the following interrogatories/requests for discovery. Are they valid? Why not?

Etc, etc. All procedural stuff really, which is as much as you can expect from a subject that teaches you procedure.

 

[RogueAcademic]

Thanks for that. Funnily enough, your description has painted a clearer picture for me than the official subject description.