Continuing projects
Interactive ethical scenarios project: An ongoing partnership with the Centre for Biological Information Technology at The University of Queensland (and other project partners on a project by project basis).
The Centre for Biological Information Technology at the University of Queensland (CBIT) has developed an interactive scenario or problem-based learning software package (PBLi) in conjunction with Massey University in New Zealand.
PBLi has been used in a wide range of applications. It has been used to allow horticultural scientists, farmers and students, for example, to engage on-line with complex real world problems such as the emergence of pests and diseases in crops and to diagnose the specific problem and work out how best to resolve it. It has also been applied to the sorts of real world problems that are encountered by social workers, engineers and medical practitioners among others.
We've applied the software to the sorts of real world problems encountered by lawyers. We wanted to explore new and interesting ways to sensitise law students and lawyers to the problems that are the stuff of everyday complaints to the Commission and generally to promote discussion about the sorgs of ethical issues that arise in the daily practice of law.
Note: you will need to have your computer display setting on a resolution of at least 1024 x 768 pixels to view these scenarios. Go to Start / My computer / Control panel / Display / Settings where you will see ‘screen resolution’. Slide the bar from ‘less’ to ‘more’ to at least 1024 x 768 pixels. Click here for a screen shot.
Ethical issues in legal practice:
Interact with ethical issues.
We undertook this project collaboratively with the CBIT and the Queensland University of Technology Faculty of Law which wanted to explore how to teach professional responsibility and ethics to law students in ways that engage them with ethical problems not only cognitively but also effectively.
The scenario describes some ethical dilemmas of a kind that lawyers encounter everyday in their real-world practice of law and that find their way to the Commission in the form of complaints.
Elder law:
Interact with Elder law scenario Part 1.
Interact with Elder law scenario Part 2.
We undertook this project collaboratively with the CBIT, the Guardianship and Administration Tribunal and the Elder Law sub-committee of the Queensland Law Society.
Parts 1 and 2 seek to sensitise practitioners to some common but difficult dilemmas that arise in the course of providing legal services to older people and people who may have cognitive impariments and to engage them in finding solutions.
Other continuing projects (as at February 2008)
1. The Lawyers, Clients and the Business of Law Symposium Series: An ongoing partnership with the Griffith Socio-Legal Research Centre.
2. Analysis of the Commission’s complaints database: An ongoing in-house project that, among other things, seeks to identify the practitioners and practices most at risk of complaint.
3. Interactive ethical scenarios project: An ongoing partnership with the Centre for Biological Information Technology at the University of Queensland (and other project partners on a scenario by scenario basis) that is designed to give lawyers and law students opportunities to engage on-line and seek to resolve real world ethical problems arising in the course of legal practice.
4. Ethical Culture Check for Law Firms: The ethical health check for law firms is an on-line instrument that allows firms to think about their ethical culture and how well it supports the people who work within their firm to aspire to and sustain high standards of professional practice and perhaps to identify some ways in which it can be strengthened and improved.
5. Women in the Law in Queensland: An ongoing collaboration with the University of Queensland on the likelihood of complaints against female solicitors as compared to male solicitors.
Completed projects (as at February 2008)
1. Survey on unsatisfactory professional conduct: A project undertaken with the support and assistance of the Griffith Law School that tested how lawyers, law students and members of the public understand and apply the concept of unsatisfactory professional conduct to a range of factual scenarios that are typical of complaints the Commission receives every day about the conduct of lawyers.
Last updated 24/06/2008 2:45:29 PM