News
Aspiring barristers in reality check
- 27th May 2010
BVC students at the College of Law (CoL) have been practicing their cross-examination skills in real Crown Court setting in Inner London, Blackfriars and Birmingham Crown Courts - complete with genuine police officers giving evidence and practising members of the Bar acting as judges.
The exercise is part of a pilot scheme in which the CoL has moved its annual mock trials for BVC students from simulated settings in the college and into actual Crown Courts. More than 350 students acted as barristers in the recent ‘trials’; nearly 100 police officers from Hendon Police Training School and West Midlands Police gave evidence and nearly 100 practising barristers and members of the judiciary took the roles of judges. The juries comprised members of the public, local students including LPC and GDL students at the CoL.
Nick Ross, senior BVC tutor at the CoL’s Bloomsbury centre, said: “The trials were a huge success and gave our Bar students an exciting opportunity to consolidate the skills and knowledge acquired on the course in a real court setting, in front of current practitioners. We already teach the students in mock court-rooms at the College but this is as close to the real thing as we can achieve and should really benefit them as the next time they do it will be for real.”
Barrister Andrew Jackson from St Philips Chambers in Birmingham played the role of judge at Birmingham Crown Court. He said: “All the books in the world and all the talks in the world will never be a substitute for the invaluable experience that mock trials, conducted in a functioning courtroom, give to the aspiring advocate.”
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