76524 Innocence Project^{1, 2}

The UTS Innocence Project seeks to identify and work to release wrongfully convicted inmates in NSW. Students, assisted by the lecturer and a clinical supervisor, undertake a range of tasks, including file management and office administration, advanced legal research and factual investigation. Some students may work in large teams on established cases; others are assigned new cases from our existing files. Some client contact and fieldwork may occur but most work involves careful and rigorous (and occasionally tedious) legal research and analysis (e.g. reading, summarising and analysing appellate judgments, trial transcripts and police reports). All students must perform a certain amount of basic office work and administration to maintain the Project files; shifts for this work are allocated early in the semester.

All students are expected to present a detailed analysis to the class of a case they have been assigned and to actively participate in brainstorming classes about other cases. Casework is a significant responsibility – while students are instructed by practising lawyers, the primary responsibility for cases is on students. Students need to be professional and flexible team players. They also have to be patient, most cases will take longer than a semester and students are expected to act consistently with the rules and responsibilities expected of admitted legal practitioners. In addition, students are required to sign an Ethics Code to ensure their own safety and to acknowledge their understanding of obligations imposed by the UTS Human Research Ethics Committee and the NSW Law Society.

Footnote(s)

1. Formerly 76037 Advanced Criminal Law.

2. LLB students require a minimum weighted average mark (WAM) of 65 per cent to undertake this subject, calculated as SUM (credit points x mark)/total credit points. This requirement may be reviewed in future. If a student enrols with a WAM of less than 65 per cent they will be withdrawn from the subject after the last date to add subjects and consequently will not be able to enrol in an alternative subject in that semester.