Kent Law Clinic’s weekly Tuesday meeting was led by the Student Committee Chair Emily Ham.
Student Committee updates:
- Instagram Takeover: Law Clinic students Terrie, Alisha and Emily took over Kent Law School’s Instagram account on Monday. The event attracted lots of questions and new followers. You can watch it all again by selecting the ‘Law Clinic’ Highlight on the @kentlawschool page
- New ‘street law’ initiative – Impact of Brexit on EU citizens: Law Clinic Director Graham Tegg has launched a new ‘street law’ initiative that aims to 1) inform members of the Roma community in Kent about their rights as EU citizens in the UK post-Brexit and 2) empower the Roma community with the knowledge to navigate the process of applying for settled status. Law students are being asked to help share this knowledge with the Roma community at various locations around Kent. The next meeting with Graham will be at 1pm on Wednesday (6 March) in the main Law Clinic office – all interested students are welcome to attend (even if you haven’t attended previous sessions). If you can’t make the session but are still interested in supporting this initiative, sign up on the sheet in the main Clinic office.
Law Clinic Module
Students were reminded that it’s Module choosing time (from Monday 11 March). Emily and Philippa outlined what is involved in the Clinical Option Module (LW543). Students taking the module undertake two cases and are supervised by Clinic solicitors and supervisors in the field of social welfare law. This coursework counts for 50% of the final mark. The other 50% being written work consisting of a case account/case reflection and a dissertation. Current Clinical Option students at the meeting urged students not to put off by the prospect of a dissertation – they agreed it was a helpful learning experience and that a lot of support is provided by supervisors. Clinic Solicitor, Vivien Gambling said the module enables students to gain a deeper interest in law, taking law “out of the textbook so you can see how law works in practice.”
Case discussions
- Wedding case: Last term, in a new experiment, the Clinic as a whole took on a case involving a wedding caterer who was being sued in the Small Claims Court for damages. Clinic Director Graham Tegg and a group of Clinic students drafted a defence and the case was heard at Canterbury County Court on Thursday 21 February. As the person making the claim failed to pay court fees, the Clinic won their case for their client and withdrew their counterclaim.
- Mobile home case: Clinic Solicitor Vivien Gambling, working with law students Mehin Abdullayeva, Constantin McGill and Oliver Pope, have been successful in recovering £15,000 compensation from a mobile home park for their elderly client, Mr William Jarvis. A full report of the case is available on the Law Clinic blog.
- Family Law case: Clinic Solicitor Philippa Bruce has secured Parental Responsibility for a grandmother who has been caring for her grandson for nine years. Philippa attended Canterbury Magistrates Court on Wednesday to request approval for a Consent Order after having obtained the agreement of both the child’s mother and the child’s father in advance.
To keep up-to-date with all the latest news and events from the Law Clinic, keep an eye on the Clinic noticeboard (in the main office of the Clinic) and/or subscribe to the Clinic mailing list: kls-clinic@kent.ac.uk
All welcome to attend the Law Clinic’s weekly meetings held at 2pm on Tuesdays in term time.