Students acquire knowledge and skills in practice and procedure to enable them to manage a basic civil action in tort or contract. The content of the course includes:
- the choice of forum
- alternative dispute resolution
- initiation of proceedings
- litigation strategy
- pleadings
- gathering evidence
- discovery and interrogatories
- interlocutory proceedings
- affidavits
- costing
- file and case management
- briefs to counsel
- enforcement of judgments.
Learning Outcomes
Upon successful completion, students will have the knowledge and skills to:
Upon completion of the course, students should be able to:
- advise a client in a simple civil liability dispute on resolving the dispute in a cost effective and timely way, by litigation or alternative methods, in the client's best interests
- draft some court documents in accordance with the applicable court rules
- make a simple interlocutory application to a court
- advise a client on the effects of a judgment, enforcement of that judgment and costs orders.
Other Information
There is no face-to-face class teaching provided by ANU in this course. The course is provided only via ANU WATTLE home page for the course. Therefore the course IS NOT SUITABLE FOR students who either
- do not have strategies to deal with studying on their own by computer and/or
- do not have access to a computer for long periods of time, to do the necessary research and writing on line.
Face-to-face meetings with the course co-ordinator, phone and email contact with the course co-ordinator are always welcome.
The class size is typically very large (230 students+). Therefore assistant teachers provide assessment and feedback/comments to students.
Indicative Assessment
In the 2010 Summer Course there will be 6 assessment elements:
- a reflective piece which starts with a knowledge and skills self-audit, due on the 3rd day of the course or, where a student enrols in the course after Summer session starts, within 48 hours of enrolment, and concludes with a reflection against that self-audit due at the end of the course
- a written exercise based on a scenario about a civil claim, which is developed for the next 3 assessments also
- an exercise involving a court application within that developing scenario
- a further written exercise within that developing scenario, which may be carried out in a group
- a final written exercise relating to the scenario.
The ANU uses Turnitin to enhance student citation and referencing techniques, and to assess assignment submissions as a component of the University's approach to managing Academic Integrity. While the use of Turnitin is not mandatory, the ANU highly recommends Turnitin is used by both teaching staff and students. For additional information regarding Turnitin please visit the ANU Online website.
Workload
This will depend on a student's existing knowledge (see further below). The course is short (8 weeks) but busy. At a minimum students will need to read and understand all course materials in WATTLE and, through WATTLE, students will need to:
- prepare an initial skills and knowledge ‘self-audit'
- access and understand audio or 'Camtasia' tutorials and related course materials
- regularly check the course WATTLE site for notices and postings in discussion boards and for any emails to them
- complete four assessment exercises within a developing hypothetical scenario
- post a final self-reflection against the initial self-audit, for assessment.
Student feedback indicates that many students under-estimate the work required to pass the course.
Requisite and Incompatibility
Prescribed Texts
These are the audio and written materials provided by Legal Workshop, on-line.
Preliminary Reading
(Suggested - not required)
Any undergraduate study and lecture notes retained from civil procedure/litigation, contracts, torts, evidence.
Cairns, B C, AUSTRALIAN CIVIL PROCEDURE 7th ed, Thomson/Lawbook Co 2007 (Chapters to read are provided in the Introductory Material mailed to students once enrolled.)
The court rules in the jurisdiction in which the student is studying.
Reading lists are available through the course website in WATTLE.
Assumed Knowledge
IMPORTANT - It will be assumed that you have completed undergraduate studies in torts, contracts, litigation and dispute resolution law/practice and procedure, and evidence.
Note that GDLP's Skills for Practice is a pre-requisite.
In addition, because the course is provided via computer (see further below) students need skills to:
- carry out on-line searching for background and precedent materials such as Acts, rules, practice directions, forms, legal services - all of which are essential litigator's tools
- navigate successfully within WATTLE.
Fees
Tuition fees are for the academic year indicated at the top of the page.
If you are a domestic graduate coursework or international student you will be required to pay tuition fees. Tuition fees are indexed annually. Further information for domestic and international students about tuition and other fees can be found at Fees.
- Student Contribution Band:
- 3
- Unit value:
- 6 units
If you are an undergraduate student and have been offered a Commonwealth supported place, your fees are set by the Australian Government for each course. At ANU 1 EFTSL is 48 units (normally 8 x 6-unit courses). You can find your student contribution amount for each course at Fees. Where there is a unit range displayed for this course, not all unit options below may be available.
| Units | EFTSL |
|---|---|
| 6.00 | 0.12500 |
Course fees
- Domestic fee paying students
| Year | Fee |
|---|---|
| 2015 | $2292 |
- International fee paying students
| Year | Fee |
|---|---|
| 2015 | $2994 |
Offerings, Dates and Class Summary Links
ANU utilises MyTimetable to enable students to view the timetable for their enrolled courses, browse, then self-allocate to small teaching activities / tutorials so they can better plan their time. Find out more on the Timetable webpage.
