University of Bolton Health and Law Students Gain Invaluable ‘Real-Life’ Courtroom Experience in Law Moot

Two teams from the University of Bolton’s Schools of Health and Law got a taste of the ‘cut and thrust’ of the courtroom as part of a mock legal action case.

Health and law students took part in a gross negligence manslaughter simulation involving a resident in a care setting.

The law moot included a public gallery, witnesses and a jury made up of students from the health programmes.

The health students learned how failing to complete tasks to the required standard could lead to criminal proceedings and the law students experienced a real-life courtroom environment.

Health students completed a range of tasks regarding standards of practice, ethics and legal considerations and the law students prepared to test their advocacy skills as part of an assessment that is built into the LLM With Solicitors Qualifying Examination programme.

Ian Bowden, Assistant Teaching Professor and Solicitor Advocate, said: “The link between healthcare and law is always strong, so it has been a fantastic project to bring together students from these two programmes to give them the very best of what we can offer.

“The court sessions allow law students to practise key skills, whilst also helping to demonstrate to those in the health sector how their actions can interact with the law.

“Our students received the very best experience as part of their studies on real-world aspects of their current and future roles.

“We are delighted with the feedback we received, which was extremely positive.”

Dr Jane Howarth, Assistant Vice Chancellor (Health) at the University of Bolton, described the initiative as a “great example of university-wide collaboration”.