Court Visit Report: Criminal & Civil Law, Ontario Court

This report is based on a court visit to the Court of Appeal for Ontario, focusing on a forgery case. The report details the courtroom setting, the individuals present, and the proceedings of the trial. It highlights the arguments made by the defense lawyer, who emphasized the accused's mental illness to mitigate the charges. The judge's decision to sentence the accused to community service is also discussed, along with the author's observations on the court's due process model and the importance of practical knowledge gained from court visits. The report emphasizes the significance of understanding courtroom procedures and the role of legal professionals in the justice system.

Running head: CRIMINAL & CIVIL LAW
REPORT ON COURT VISIT
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Authors Note

1CRIMINAL & CIVIL LAW
Introduction
Court observations are very important for law students because it helps them to know
how the court proceeds. To notice and understand court proceedings and to make a report a
Canadian court has been visited. The description of the court visited is contained in this report.
Besides this, the report also contains a case observation, the role of the justice, description of the
courtrooms and conduct of the parties.
1. To make this report, the court which has been visited by me is the Court of Appeal
for Ontario at 11 am of 8th January 2020 which is located at Osgoode Hall in downtown Toronto
and famous in dealing with a vast range of civil appeals, such as bankruptcies, business,
property, and family disputes, and negligence claims ("Court of Appeal for Ontario", 2020).
2. The matter which has been observed by me in the court was a forgery case in which
a boy of 20 years of age was accused of uttering a falsified cheque and pleaded guilty. I have
entered that room after the proceedings started. The matter was already in the trial stage.
3. There were many individuals present in that room along with the judge, such as a
clerk, a prosecuting attorney, three defense lawyers and an officer of corrective service. The
principal aim of policing is to save time and money, to prosecute crimes more effectively, and to
establish reliable pre-trial facts. The boy sat inside the waiting room ("Court of Appeal for
Ontario", 2020).
4. It has been argued by the defense lawyer that the boy has suffered from mental
illness and takes medicines but he is not a dishonest person usually. As he needs huge money for
altering his accommodation, thus by using fake signatures on cheques, he sought to defraud the
financial institution. As per him, a mentally sick person cannot commit forgery and may avoid

2CRIMINAL & CIVIL LAW
the stringent penalty of incarceration of ten years the accused pleaded himself guilty (Levi,
2013).
5. However, after reviewing the facts, the judge orders him 96 hours of community
service which made the manager of the bank unhappy.
By observing the entire process I have learned how to make arguments in the court. The
defense lawyer is looking very confident while arguing the matter. I have also learned that the
court is based on the model of due process the main focus of which is the rights and liberties of
people by minimizing the government’s authority.
Comment
Court observation is very important for law student because it helps to get practical
knowledge which is not possible by reading books only. Professional courses are incomplete
without practical knowledge.

3CRIMINAL & CIVIL LAW
Reference
Court of Appeal for Ontario. (2020). Retrieved 11 March 2020, from
https://www.ontariocourts.ca/coa/en/
Levi, M. (2013). Regulating fraud (routledge revivals): White-collar crime and the criminal
process. Routledge.