Year 10 Legal Studies Excursion

Darwin High School Year 10 Legal Studies class participated in the NT Legal Aid Commission’s (NTLAC) Judgement Day program last week.

Students learned about aspects of the criminal justice system by participating in a mock trial. Two students admirably played the role of defendants charged with stealing. They were interviewed by a Legal Aid lawyer as if they were on trial and the rest of the class had the opportunity to ask the lawyer a range of questions about criminal law.

NTLAC Community Education Officer, Marios Fitirikkos then took the class over to the local court and the students were shown how the courts operate.

Following this, the class sat in on a number of matters in Court One.

The following day, Mr Fitirikkos visited the class and directed a continuation of the mock trial to ensure that the students had understood the legal processes they had witnessed on the excursion.

The role-play involved charging two student defendants, Francesca Gherdevichand and Matilda Anderson with stealing. The prosecution was played by Lachlan Anderson and Lily Currey-Billyard and defence was played by Emily Renshaw and Arjun Sharma. Tyler Burroughs was the court clerk and the matter was presented to Samuel Roussos who played the judge.