Were you disadvantaged by not doing evidence as part of your degree?

Oceanbunny

Hi all,

I'd appreciate your opinions and experiences on the below

I am a mature student gone back to study law at night after guts of 20 years working in commercial environments. Contract negotiation has been one of my specialist areas- so likely for the practicality of paying the mortgage- and not ending up divorced- I will try and leverage that experience and work in that area afterwards.

I understand that I need to sit evidence for KI but do not need as part of my degree( but need admin).But am still open to the solicitor route and waiting to see what the legal services bill brings.

Has anyone practicing as either a solicitor or barrister - who did not have evidence as part of their degree- felt they were dis-advantaged afterwards?

Many Thanks for your help,
o

NoQuarter

If you want, or are still open to the idea of the KI then definitely do evidence! Its not that bad and it applies to lots of things. They told us in the KI that its probably the most useful of topics as a practicing lawyer.

What is your alternative option?

McCrack

If you go down the solr route it's no problem. You will learn evidence theory in Law Society and most of it you will forget anyway once you are out and probably never have to draw on it unless you become a criminal practitioner.

Oceanbunny

thanks for the feedback.

why i am thinking of skipping evidence is the depth of the course and doing admin instead this year.

and wait and see what alternative there is next year - for final year option. the return on the investment of time for evidence is what would concern me- going by my lecturer's rep-i would need to put in an extra 20% time on evidence to get the same marks as in another subject. as a night time student - time is limited so don't want my degree lowered by one lecturer.

FreudianSlippers

IMO if you want to go down the Barrister route you will need both admin and evidence (actually they may both be required by the Inns, I know evidence is).

Oceanbunny

thanks.

as i haven't decide ki or bhp yet- and looking to see what the imf brings but sounds like i am better having evidence than not- maybe just need to suck up this negative attitude i have about the extra time.

thanks for the feedback.

o

Remmy

FreudianSlippers wrote: »

IMO if you want to go down the Barrister route you will need both admin and evidence (actually they may both be required by the Inns, I know evidence is).

+1 Im fairly sure I read somewhere that admin is a requirement too.

NoQuarter

You need to have studied admin to apply for KI but there is no exam on it, you dont need to have studied evidence but you have to pass evidence of the entrance exam.

Thats the position as far as I know. OP, evidence is interesting enough so you should do it.

Oceanbunny

thanks all.

much appreciated.

o

johnnyskeleton

Afaik, many law degrees in Ireland have mandatory jurisprudence, land law and company law requirements, with evidence optional and little or no practice and procedure. Evidence and procedure should be just as important as contract, constitutional, tort and criminal modules and I think evidence should be compulsory.

Contra Proferentem

As a matter of interest, which do people think would be more interesting and/or useful for those looking towards the Solicitor branch?

I've to choose three electives from the following:

Administrative Law
Employment Law
Jurisprudence
The Law of Evidence

Remmy

Contra Proferentem wrote: »

As a matter of interest, which do people think would be more interesting and/or useful for those looking towards the Solicitor branch?

I've to choose three electives from the following:

Administrative Law
Employment Law
Jurisprudence
The Law of Evidence

If you weren't interested in the bar I would drop Jurisprudence. It's the least straightforward out of all those suggestions.

Contra Proferentem

Remmy wrote: »

If you weren't interested in the bar I would drop Jurisprudence. It's the least straightforward out of all those suggestions.

I've absolutely no interest in the bar at the moment. I'm sure if I ever wished to look into it I could move areas easily enough. I am considering a Post-Grad however before approaching Blackhalls.

However, I do tend to like philosophical, open ended subjects which I've been led to believe Jurisprudence is primarily about. But if it is not really professionally relevant then I could afford to rule it out.