Learning from learning: the dialogue of virtual and real courts : the dialogue of virtual and real courts

This paper presents ways in which lessons learned from using technology in the classroom can inform the debate on forms of electronic administration in the court process. Using document assembly techniques and email, our CBL program the Virtual Court Action emulated a civil court action, using identical personnel, legal documents and procedure. The process of a court action was thus computerised in ways very similar to the computerisation of a real court administration system. Through designing and implementing the Virtual Court Action and evaluating feedback from the students two important consequences became apparent. First, a number of critical issues regarding communication, training and work practices became much more visible than they were before. Based on the evidence we have gathered from the project, we will examine some of the positive benefits as well as the potential drawbacks which need to be considered if electronic communications among lawyers and between lawyers and courts are to become accepted practice. Secondly, it became clear that the lessons we were learning about IT in legal educational simulations could be applied to communication, training and work practices in real court situations. Taking a broader approach, we became aware that the expanding use of IT in the legal curriculum, and the increasingly sophisticated body of cognitive research into learning and professional practice could make a contribution to the research on automation of legal process. We therefore propose that the `one-way street' model of educational simulations and professional practice in which legal learning imitates professional practice could be re-defined as a dialogic model of the two domains. 13th BILETA Conference: 'The Changing