This course provides 2nd and 3rd year students who worked at Queen's Legal Aid (QLA) for the summer with the opportunity to provide student leadership at QLA, a poverty law clinic which serves low-income area residents as well as students at Queen's University. QLA typically assists with criminal and quasi-criminal offences, small claims court litigation, landlord/tenant disputes, creditor/debtor matters, employment claims, human rights complaints, student academic appeals, and appeals to obtain income support for persons with disabilities. Approximately seventy students work on client files during the academic year. Up to ten students are hired to take responsibility for the files from May through August. In the academic year following their summer employment, these students take on mentoring and administrative responsibilities and are eligible for academic credit as student leaders of QLA. The course will run from September until April (i.e. two terms) and takes place at the downtown offices of the Queen's Law Clinics (QLC), 5th Floor, LaSalle Mews, 303 Bagot Street, Kingston. Course participants act as Group Leaders and mentors for a group of up to nine students who are either enrolled in LAW 590 A/B or are volunteers at QLA. While there is no in-class component to this course, course participants are responsible for conducting weekly meetings and training sessions with their group in the fall term, and bi-weekly group meetings in the winter term. Course participants are responsible for monitoring the progress of their group members files, liaising with Review Counsel, and for completing evaluations and file audits for their group. In addition, course participants are required to maintain carriage of a small number of legal files that carry over from their summer employment. This typically involves files that have hearing dates scheduled in September or October, or files of a more complicated nature from within QLAs area of legal practice. The course is graded on a PASS/FAIL basis, based on an evaluation of the casework completed by the student throughout the year, involvement in the effective and efficient operation of QLA, and participation in course-related activities including the leadership provided to group members. Students are eligible for enrollment only if they are hired as Summer Caseworkers in the summer immediately preceding the academic year in which they enroll in LAW 594A/B, and must enroll in LAW 594A/B as a condition of their summer employment. This course fulfills either the Advocacy requirement, OR the Practice Skills Requirement.
This course provides 2nd and 3rd year students who worked at Queen's Legal Aid (QLA) for the summer with the opportunity to provide student leadership at QLA, a poverty law clinic which serves low-income area residents as well as students at Queen's University. QLA typically assists with criminal and quasi-criminal offences, small claims court litigation, landlord/tenant disputes, creditor/debtor matters, employment claims, human rights complaints, student academic appeals, and appeals to obtain income support for persons with disabilities. Approximately seventy students work on client files during the academic year. Up to ten students are hired to take responsibility for the files from May through August. In the academic year following their summer employment, these students take on mentoring and administrative responsibilities and are eligible for academic credit as student leaders of QLA. The course will run from September until April (i.e. two terms) and takes place at the downtown offices of the Queen's Law Clinics (QLC), 5th Floor, LaSalle Mews, 303 Bagot Street, Kingston. Course participants act as Group Leaders and mentors for a group of up to nine students who are either enrolled in LAW 590 A/B or are volunteers at QLA. While there is no in-class component to this course, course participants are responsible for conducting weekly meetings and training sessions with their group in the fall term, and bi-weekly group meetings in the winter term. Course participants are responsible for monitoring the progress of their group members files, liaising with Review Counsel, and for completing evaluations and file audits for their group. In addition, course participants are required to maintain carriage of a small number of legal files that carry over from their summer employment. This typically involves files that have hearing dates scheduled in September or October, or files of a more complicated nature from within QLAs area of legal practice. The course is graded on a PASS/FAIL basis, based on an evaluation of the casework completed by the student throughout the year, involvement in the effective and efficient operation of QLA, and participation in course-related activities including the leadership provided to group members. Students are eligible for enrollment only if they are hired as Summer Caseworkers in the summer immediately preceding the academic year in which they enroll in LAW 594A/B, and must enroll in LAW 594A/B as a condition of their summer employment. This course fulfills either the Advocacy requirement, OR the Practice Skills Requirement.
