Intro to Clinical Law - What kind of work are you assigned?

[incoming1L]

I'm contemplating taking Intro to Clinical Law, but I want to get a good sense of the work I'll be doing before bidding any points on it. I know they mentioned we'll be assigned family/criminal law matters, and that the files will be in various stages of litigation. But how much litigation/potential court time would you say a caseworker really gets? Is it a regular thing, or is it rare? What was your experience as a case worker at CLS? Would you recommend taking the course, and how many bid points are usually necessary (last year's stats don't seem to include this course for some reason)?

[Snax]

Unless something has drastically changed in the little over a year since I graduated, you won’t get to bid on anything as a 1L. Instead, you’ll have your schedule handed to you during o-week when you meet your small group.
 

Worry about bidding on courses and all that kind of stuff next year. You’ll also have a much better idea of what interests you at that point. 

[Moomee]

On 7/17/2022 at 11:27 PM, incoming1L said:

I'm contemplating taking Intro to Clinical Law, but I want to get a good sense of the work I'll be doing before bidding any points on it. I know they mentioned we'll be assigned family/criminal law matters, and that the files will be in various stages of litigation. But how much litigation/potential court time would you say a caseworker really gets? Is it a regular thing, or is it rare? What was your experience as a case worker at CLS? Would you recommend taking the course, and how many bid points are usually necessary (last year's stats don't seem to include this course for some reason)?

This is a great question and I'd love to see an answer (as a 2L transferring in) and possibly incoming 1L was asking for the future...

[annaturney]

On 7/17/2022 at 11:27 PM, incoming1L said:

 

So, Snax is correct - 1L's don't technically get carriage of files. As a 1L, you apply as a volunteer ("1L Associate Caseworker"), and you kind of get to shadow the upper years' work. Come January, you can apply to work as a Caseworker over the summer (paid). In 2L and 3L you can take the Intro Course for credit. There are Advanced specialized clinic courses after that if you want to take them. 

The actual experience is (welcome to law school) very dependent on a number of factors. 

Work in the summer will give a bit more experience than the course, just purely based on the number of students carrying files during the school year. Work is very field and file specific. Criminal gets you the most court appearances, technically, but a lot of them are speak-to's. Family has a good number of shorter speak-to's but not as much. Civil, and this is province-wide, is at a bit of a standstill at the moment. Things are slowly opening up in the London civil courts, but generally speaking, a civil file takes more time than ideal to see movement. But a good part of the job still involves working through those various stages of litigation, and you will go through those stages at some point if you end up going into litigation. 

If anyone has more specific questions, send me a message. 

[louiscanliit]

^^ these are great points!

Adding to this, you can bid zero and probably still get into the course. It didn't fill up this year.