The suspense of a high-drama court room was introduced for the first time to a day's study for Social Work students at the University of Waikato in Tauranga.

A mock court room, set up with support from Child Youth and Family lawyers and social workers, was designed to give fourth year Social Justice, Ethics and Law students a taste of the real life experience.

High Drama: Child Youth and Family regional manager for Legal Services Tasi Malu plays judge during a mock court for University of Waikato Social Work students.

Child Youth and Family regional manager for Legal Services Tasi Malu, who played the played the role of judge, says it was an intense, but valuable exercise.

'We're really pleased to be working with the university to bring it to students who are seeing examples of social work in action.”

Child Youth and Family staff put together a 'typical” family court scenario, based around issues of parental access, assigning witness roles to all 10 students on the programme.

Staff held roles of lawyers, court registrar and a local police officer also took part in the exercise in the role of psychologist as a key professional witness.

'It's not unusual for a social worker to have to give evidence in court,” says lecturer Kelly Smith.
'Most social workers will be required to present evidence or a professional report in court during their career. Child Youth and Family Social Workers are statutory social workers so are required to write court reports and present evidence in the family court.”

Kelly says the purpose of the exercise was to 'demystify the court process and allow students to put into practice the legal knowledge, concepts and skills they have learnt on the course”.

'The students responded well to the challenge. They knew they were going to be cross-examined by at least two lawyers in the roles they had been assigned. They could see the practice errors in the affidavits and evidence they had been given to present and it demonstrated to them the importance of objective and accurate court report writing.”

The practice scenario was regarding a disagreement between parents as to who had day-to-day care of the child. The Care of Children Act provided the legal framework for the court session.