MLL110 Legal Research and Statutory Interpretation Trimester 1 2025
Assessment 2: Case Analysis (Individual)
DUE DATE: 15 April 2025 by 8pm (Melbourne Time)
PERCENTAGE OF FINAL GRADE: 30%
WORD COUNT: 1800 words
Overview
How to read, analyse and interpret a case is a foundational legal skill that you will:
learn and apply in MLL110;
develop throughout your law studies; and
use daily in legal practice.
A case analysis is essentially an explanation of a case. In legal practice you owe a duty to your clients to know and understand the relevant law. This will frequently include the ability to analyse cases to identify, and apply, relevant common law legal principles. Law graduates are often asked to write a case analysis for a supervisor, who is knowledgeable in the law, but has not had the opportunity to read the case in detail.
The purpose of Assessment 2 is to:
1. provide you with an opportunity to complete a case analysis early in your law studies; and
2. receive feedback about your work, that you can incorporate into future assessment tasks.
Context
You have been selected to participate in a highly competitive internship program at the Victorian Legal Services Board and Commissioner (VLSBC), congratulations! Your supervising lawyer, Lisa Wu, advises the VLSBC on the regulation of the legal profession. As part of updating internal policy documents, Lisa has a list of cases which need to be analysed. Lisa has asked you to complete a case analysis of Victorian Legal Services Commissioner v Lennon (Legal Practice) [2024] VCAT 744. Lisa has noted her requirements below. If you have any questions about Assessment 2, please post in the MLL110 Discussion Forum, and the Unit Chair will respond.
Required Case
Victorian Legal Services Commissioner v Lennon (Legal Practice) [2024] VCAT 744 Available via the link below:
http://www6.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/vic/VCAT/2024/744.html
Required Case Analysis Elements
In the academic legal discipline, and in legal practice, there is no prescribed way to complete a case analysis. This will often be guided by your supervisor (or Unit Chair) and will be dependent on the context of the task. There are however common elements that lawyers and law students will seek to identify when reading and analysing a case. A case analysis will often identify the material facts, procedural history and key issues in the case, the main arguments (submissions) put forward by the parties to the court as to why these issues should be decided in their favour, and the reasons given by the court for its decision on these issues.
A case analysis may also discuss the wider legal or policy implications of the decision and identify aspects of the law that might be unsatisfactory and in need of reform. This is not a requirement of Assessment 2. You are also not required to provide a commentary on the courts reasoning or discuss the correctness of the decision. You will have an opportunity to practice these skills in later year LLB units.
To complete Assessment 2, you need to identify and analyse the following assessable elements:
Citation and Court
Material facts and procedural history.
Grounds for appeal and/or issues to be determined.
Reasons for the courts decision (which can be broken down into the following sub-elements):
o Court analysis of the law
o Principle/s of law to be applied
o Explanation of how the law applied to the facts
o Decision and/or order/s made by the court
As a reminder, the assessable elements are introduced, discussed, and practised in:
1. The Week 4 prescribed learning resources
2. Week 3, 4 and 5 seminars
3. The prescribed textbook Chapter 7: Case Law and Precedent, para. 7.6 – 7.12.
These assessable elements are the only elements that are required to be addressed in the case analysis and correlate to the marking rubric for Assessment 2. You are not required to provide an opinion section or to address the broader context of the case. You will have an opportunity to practice these skills in later year LLB units.
Case Analysis Structure and Format Requirements
In the academic legal discipline, and in legal practice, there is no singular prescribed format or structure for a case analysis. For Assessment 2 you should structure you case analysis around the required case analysis elements discussed above. You may choose to utilise each element as a separate heading in your cases analysis or amalgamate several elements of the case analysis together under one heading. In deciding how to structure your case analysis, remember the context, you are required to write a case analysis for a supervisor, who is knowledgeable in the law, but has not had the opportunity to read the case in detail.
The case analysis must be written in full sentences (i.e. dot points are not acceptable except for the material facts element) and should be written in your own words (avoiding lengthy quotes) so that you demonstrate that you understand the legal principles involved.
Format requirements
Please use:
A size 12 font.
Tahoma, Calibri, Arial or Times New Roman.
A line spacing of 1.5.
All pages must be numbered and include your student ID number in the header or footer.
You must include the word count at the conclusion of your case analysis.
Word Limit Requirement
The word limit for Assessment 2 is 1800 words and will be strictly enforced. Assessment 2 can be less than 1800 words, if you adequately canvas the required case analysis elements specified above. It is a matter for your own academic judgement as to whether you have done this, and not something on which the teaching team can advise. There are important reasons for imposing and enforcing word limits – they are something lawyers must grapple with in practice. For example, arguments for special leave to the High Court must not exceed 10 pages (responses to those applications must not exceed 5 pages) and must adhere to formatting requirements.
Referencing Requirements
No bibliography is required for Assessment 2 as there is no requirement for legal research to be undertaken. In legal practice a case analysis will rarely use footnotes. For the purposes of the Assessment 2 only, please adopt the citation structure provided in the examples below:
Paraphrasing the judgment
Quoting directly from the judgment
The number at the conclusion of ech example is a reference to the paragraph number of the judgement.
Academic Integrity
Deakin University takes academic integrity very seriously. It is important that you complete your own work in every assessment task. Any material used in this assignment that is not your original work, including research, references or content generated by AI, must be acknowledged and appropriately referenced. You can find information about referencing (and avoiding breaching academic integrity) and other study support resources at the following website: http://www.deakin.edu.au/students/study-support
The use of artificial intelligence (AI), including generative artificial intelligence, can contravene numerous sections of the Deakin University Student Academic Integrity Policy. For example, s4(14)(b) of Student Academic Integrity Policy states that contract cheating occurs if a student requests another person or service (including artificial intelligence content production tools) to produce or complete all or part of an assessment task to submit as their own work. Please ensure that you have carefully read the Student Academic Integrity Policy before you submit your assessment task. As explained in the Deakin University study resources acknowledging your use, you must always ensure that your final submitted assessment is your own work, creation, and analysis. The Deakin University Library provides information about how to evaluate AI generated content. In the legal discipline, citing AI-generated content as a source of information is not acceptable. AI-generated content it is neither a legal source nor expert commentary, thus such citations do not conform to legal research practices. You should, therefore, not be citing AI-generated content in your assessment task.
Learning Outcomes
This task allows you to demonstrate your achievement towards the Unit Learning Outcomes (ULOs) which have been aligned to the Deakin Graduate Learning Outcomes (GLOs). Deakin GLOs describe the knowledge and capabilities graduates acquire and can demonstrate on completion of their course. This assessment task is an important tool in determining your achievement of the ULOs. If you do not demonstrate achievement of the ULOs you will not be successful in this unit. You are advised to familiarise yourself with these ULOs and GLOs as they will inform you on what you are expected to demonstrate for successful completion of this unit. The learning outcomes that are aligned to this assessment task are:
Unit Learning Outcomes (ULO) Deakin Graduate Learning Outcomes
(GLO)
ULO 1 Apply relevant reasoning and interpretation methodologies to analyse cases and legislation. GLO1: Discipline-specific knowledge and capabilities
GLO5: Problem solving
Submission
You must submit your assignment in the Assignment Dropbox in the MLL110 CloudDeakin Unit site on or before the due date: 15 April 2025 by 8pm (Melbourne Time).
When uploading Assessment 2, name your document using the following syntax:
It is the responsibility of each student to ensure that:
o the correct document is submitted in the MLL110 Assessment 2 Dropbox; and
o that the document is submitted in the correct format (.docx) to allow the document to be opened and assessed.
Submitting a hard copy of this assignment is not required. You must keep a backup copy of every assignment you submit until the marked assignment has been returned to you. In the unlikely event that one of your assignments is misplaced you will need to submit your backup copy.
Any work you submit may be checked by electronic or other means for the purposes of detecting collusion and/or plagiarism and for authenticating work.
When you submit an assignment through your CloudDeakin unit site, you will receive an email to your Deakin email address confirming that it has been submitted. You should check that you can see your assignment in the Submissions view of the Assignment Dropbox folder after upload and check for, and keep, the email receipt for the submission.
If you have any IT related issues with submission, please contact IT Help Service Desk and record your customer service number:
https://help.deakin.edu.au/ithelp Internal phones: 888
Off campus: 1800 463 888
International: +61 3 5227 8888
Marking and feedback
The marking rubric indicates the assessment criteria for this task. Criteria act as a boundary around the task and help specify what assessors are looking for in your submission. The criteria are drawn from the ULOs and align with the GLOs. You should familiarise yourself with the assessment criteria before completing and submitting this task. Students who submit their work by the due date will receive their marks and feedback on CloudDeakin 15 working days after the submission date (subject to the on-time submission of extension requests).
Extensions
If unexpected circumstances beyond your control will prevent you from submitting an assessment by the due date, you can request an assessment extension. Circumstances within a students control (such as misreading timetables, submitting an assessment incorrectly or late, poor time management or holidays) are not grounds for an extension under the Deakin University Assessment (Higher Education Courses) Procedure.
Extension requests need to be submitted before the assessment is due, when you realise you will have difficulty meeting the due date. You are required to provide a valid reason for the extension and the length of time you are seeking for the extension. In most cases, you will be required to supply supporting documentation (e.g., medical certificate, death certificate, statutory declaration). When circumstances prevent you from applying, the application may be made on your behalf by the relevant University support service you are liaising with (e.g. Safer Community, Counselling or Disability Resource Centre).
All extension requests must be officially granted via CloudDeakin:
It is important to note that making a request for an extension does not guarantee that this request will be granted. Assessment extensions can be granted up to 7 calendar days. Students requiring a longer extension or who cannot request an extension by the due date should apply for special consideration.
Please note: Students with an DRC Access Plan and/or using NIKERII Student Support services, additional reasonable adjustments to extensions between seven and up to fourteen days may be granted by the Unit Chair.
Late submission penalties
If you submit an assessment task after the due date without an approved extension or special consideration, 5% will be deducted from the available marks for each day after the due date up to seven days*. Work submitted more than seven days after the due date will not be marked and will receive 0% for the task. The Unit Chair may refuse to accept a late submission where it is unreasonable or impracticable to assess the task after the due date. *’Day’ means calendar day for electronic submissions and working day for paper submissions.
An example of how the calculation of the late penalty based on an assignment being due on a Thursday at 8:00pm is as follows:
1 day late: submitted after Thursday 11:59pm and before Friday 11:59pm 5% penalty.
2 days late: submitted after Friday 11:59pm and before Saturday 11:59pm 10% penalty.
MLL110 T1/2025 A2 Case Analysis (30%)
3 days late: submitted after Saturday 11:59pm and before Sunday 11:59pm 15% penalty.
4 days late: submitted after Sunday 11:59pm and before Monday 11:59pm 20% penalty.
5 days late: submitted after Monday 11:59pm and before Tuesday 11:59pm 25% penalty.
6 days late: submitted after Tuesday 11:59pm and before Wednesday 11:59pm 30% penalty.
7 days late: submitted after Wednesday 11:59pm and before Thursday 11:59pm 35% penalty.
The Dropbox closes the Thursday after 11:59pm AEST/AEDT time.
Support
The Division of Student Life provides a range of Study Support resources and services, available throughout the academic year, including Writing Mentor and Maths Mentor online drop ins and the SmartThinking 24 hour writing feedback service at this link. If you would prefer some more in depth and tailored support, make an appointment online with a Language and Learning Adviser.
Your rights and responsibilities as a student
As a student you have both rights and responsibilities. Please refer to the document Your rights and responsibilities as a student in the Unit Guide ajd Information section in the Content area in the CloudDeakin unit site.