For pricing, timetables and booking form please download the file at the bottom of the page or ring one of our advisors now on 0151 236 2024

The Interview and Advocacy assessment is a difficult examination pass first time. It effectively tests your interview and advocacy skills against a set of pre determined criteria designed to assess your suitability to become a Duty Solicitor.

Whether you like it or not, the qualification appears to create a professional difference. Those with the Duty Solicitor qualification can command better pay and opportunities than those without it. So why candidates feel that they can leave their chances of passing this exmamination to fate is is a mystery.

Very few of you were taught advocacy in any meaningful way, left to fend for yourselves with little support from those who know. If you were one of the lucky few to have that investment of time before being thrown in the deep end, then you are lucky. Nevertheless, this doesn't teach you how to learn the skills necessary to pass the IAA.

We have put together two support packages to help you pass the examination first time and teach you the basic advocacy and interview skills that you need.

1. Basic support package 6 CPD hours

• First webinar package

A webinar designed to take you through the basics of interviewing and advocacy. The course deconstructs the most frequently needed areas of advocacy into structures and templates that you can use both in real life court situations and employ to pass the IAA. The course shows you how to adapt your interview technique to properly use the fifteen minutes of exam time properly. The course also explores in depth how to construct bail applications, pleas in mitigation and how to make a successful application for an adjournment. These are the applications that you will need to know how to make to pass the IAA.

 

• Second webinar package

This webinar takes you through the process of the IAA and what to look out for to ensure you pass. It includes

• common reasons for failure
• gathering resources you will need
• mentors
• before you start: scope and standards of performance
• the assessment process
• practical guidance
• examples of interivews and case studies
• the hearing
• standards of competence
• common crimes used

 

• two previous scripts for the IAA together with marking matrix and answers

2. Intensive Interactive support course 1 CPD hour

This support course is designed to meet your individual requirements. It is delivered over the internet by one of our assessors and can include any issues that you feel need resolving having watched the first support package. It can include at your discretion a mock IAA to walk you through the assessment to address your needs.

Charles Peter Solicitor–Advocate

Charles was admitted as a solicitor in 1986, and is a previous member of the Duty Solicitor Committee and the Regional Duty Solicitor Committee.  He is now a member of the Datalaw Assessment Board.

Speaker: James Parry Solicitor–Advocate

James Parry - a solicitor and high court advocate with 20 years experience in the criminal justice sector, ten of which were spent with the Magistrates’ Court Service and ten in private practice. James is the author of “Legal Aid in Criminal Proceedings” (Butterworths), and various published papers dealing with diverse aspects of the criminal justice system.

James continues to practice as a duty solicitor in addition to providing CPD training

For prices, timetables and booking form please download the file below