Unit Synopsis
Legal Research builds upon your existing legal research skills acquired in Introduction to Law to enhance your ability to locate, analyse and apply legal and interdisciplinary sources in a range of contexts in preparation for your future law studies and legal practice. In this unit, you will engage in authentic research exercises you would be expected to complete as a trainee or newly qualified lawyer and carry out related skills-based tasks, such as conducting a client interview and drafting a letter of advice. You will also prepare a research portfolio in response to authentic research tasks.
Details
| Level | Undergraduate |
|---|---|
| Unit Level | 2 |
| Credit Points | 6 |
| Student Contribution Band | SCA Band 4 |
| Fraction of Full-Time Student Load | 0.125 |
| Pre-requisites or Co-requisites |
Pre-requisite: LAWS11057 and a minimum of 24 credit points. Important note: Students enrolled in a subsequent unit who failed their pre-requisite unit, should drop the subsequent unit before the census date or within 10 working days of Fail grade notification. Students who do not drop the unit in this timeframe cannot later drop the unit without academic and financial liability. See details in the Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework). |
| Class Timetable | View Unit Timetable |
| Residential School | No Residential School |
Unit Availabilities from Term 1 - 2026
Attendance Requirements
All on-campus students are expected to attend scheduled classes - in some units, these classes are identified as a mandatory (pass/fail) component and attendance is compulsory. International students, on a student visa, must maintain a full time study load and meet both attendance and academic progress requirements in each study period (satisfactory attendance for International students is defined as maintaining at least an 80% attendance record).
Recommended Student Time Commitment
Each 6-credit Undergraduate unit at CQUniversity requires an overall time commitment of an average of 12.5 hours of study per week, making a total of 150 hours for the unit.
Assessment Tasks
| Assessment Task | Weighting |
|---|---|
| 1. Practical Assessment | 60% |
| 3. Portfolio | 40% |
This is a graded unit: your overall grade will be calculated from the marks or grades for each assessment task, based on the relative weightings shown in the table above. You must obtain an overall mark for the unit of at least 50%, or an overall grade of ‘pass’ in order to pass the unit. If any ‘pass/fail’ tasks are shown in the table above they must also be completed successfully (‘pass’ grade). You must also meet any minimum mark requirements specified for a particular assessment task, as detailed in the ‘assessment task’ section (note that in some instances, the minimum mark for a task may be greater than 50%).
Past Exams
All University policies are available on the Policy web site, however you may wish to directly view the following policies below.
This list is not an exhaustive list of all University policies. The full list of policies are available on the Policy web site .
Term 2 - 2024 : The overall satisfaction for students in the last offering of this course was 96.30% (`Agree` and `Strongly Agree` responses), based on a 36% response rate.
Feedback, Recommendations and Responses
Every unit is reviewed for enhancement each year. At the most recent review, the following staff and student feedback items were identified and recommendations were made.
Source: SUTE comments, feedback from students to tutor.
Some students suggested the assessment weight for the components of the research portfolio be revisited (presentation - 20%, collection of weekly workshop tasks - 10%) given the amount of work involved in learning about the research topic and preparing for the presentation.
Review the assessment weightings for all assessment tasks, including the components of each assessment task.
For 2024 Term 2, the 20% quiz was removed. The weighting for the Research Portfolio was adjusted to more accurately reflect the work involved in that assessment.
Source: Feedback from students to tutor.
Feedback students received on their client interview helped students to understand the importance of this skill and the need to practise and enhance their skills in this area. Students also noted that the presentation incorporated into the portfolio enhanced their oral communication skills.
Retain the focus on oral communication skills, and in particular the oral presentation on a current research topic and the client interview exercise.
The oral presentation and client interview assessments were retained.
Source: SUTE student feedback
I really enjoyed the unit and how there was a task each week to complete for the assessment. Overall the delivery of the unit was outstanding! It was engaging, interesting and informative.
Continue to deliver the unit content in an engaging, interesting and informative way.
In Progress
Source: SUTE student feedback
I also found the final assignment to be very large for not many marks.
Review the weighting of the research portfolio and oral presentation components of Assessment 2.
In Progress
On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
- Strategise and conduct a client interview to obtain relevant information from a client and provide advice to a client in an effective and professional manner.
- Locate and evaluate relevant and credible legal and interdisciplinary sources.
- Communicate effectively both orally and in writing in a range of professional and academic contexts.
| Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| 1 - Practical Assessment | • | • | • |
| 3 - Portfolio | • | • | • |
| Graduate Attributes | Learning Outcomes | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| 1 - Communication | • | • | |
| 2 - Problem Solving | • | • | |
| 3 - Critical Thinking | • | ||
| 4 - Information Literacy | • | ||
| 6 - Information Technology Competence | • | ||
| 8 - Ethical practice | • | ||
| Assessment Tasks | Graduate Attributes | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 10 | |