Essay on "Australian Administrative Law Seeking Reasons"

Quoted Instructions for "Australian Administrative Law Seeking Reasons" Assignment:

Australian Administrative Law (Part A, B and C)

A. Drafting for Legal Practice: Seeking Reasons for an Administrative Decision Using the facts of the attached administrative law case, identify an administrative law decision that has been made by the relevant public authority/official that affects the rights or interests of an individual or body (your fictitious client). Assume your client wants to make an application for judicial review of the decision. As a fictitious legal practitioner in the firm representing your client, draft a formal letter to the opponent (the public authority) asking for a statement of reasons for their decision. There is no specific format for the drafting of a letter seeking reasons for a decision in administrative law, other than to use a professional and ethical writing style.

An example of an application for reasons is located at Chris McGrath’s environmental law website at http://www.envlaw.com.au/nathan.html . At this site you will find the Nathan Dam Case. Scroll down and you will locate all the ‘Key Documents of the Case’ including a request for a statement of reasons. Use the format of the letter as a guide only. This means that you must adapt it to make it suit your case and the requirements of this course.

1) Submit a letter seeking a statement of reasons for the decision. 2) Make reference to the appropriate law and/or statutory provisions in support of your request. 3) You may alter or add to the facts of your case where ‘necessary’ to complete the letter but where possible, adhere to the real case. 4) In a separate paragraph at the end of your document: provide the full case citation, and provide a statement explaining the changes you made to the facts of the case (if any).

B. Reflection and review

1) Reflection on Written Communication Rewrite the response below with the intention of improving it. You may use up 100 words.

What do you consider are the three most important characteristics of a professional and why? During my career as a professional sportsperson, I understood that being a professional required persistence (to commit to a pathway and maintain that direction), confidence (to believe even when obstacles presented), and integrity (to work under a value system in all professional matters). 2) Communication Awareness In 250 words, write a critical reflection of the original response by discussing any changes you have made in the re-written work. In doing this: 1. Identify the strengths of the original response 2. Identify the weaknesses of the original response 3. Discuss the corrections made to the original work by clearly stating why you made the changes 4. Support the changes made by clear reference to any external sources that you have used to justify your corrections.

C. Drafting Written Communication for Legal Practice: FOI Application Using the attached newspaper story, prepare a Right to Information (‘RTI’) application on behalf of one of the parties. The RTI application is attached. Since the application form is PDF, create a Microsoft Word document to answer to the following: From the newspaper story you are to assume that you represent the non-government individual or body in the dispute. The aim is to stay as authentic as possible. However, your story will almost certainly require you to invent some information. If so, all such fabricated information must be clearly identified by inserting such words [within square brackets]. Cite all new sources. Look at the RTI form as a guide to document the following. Assume that this is a state (Queensland) matter, even if federal, and that the information you seek id not available ‘for purchase or by request’. Follow points 1 to 5 and use the words in inverted commas (eg. ‘contact details’) listed below as headings in your Word document:

1. Provide all of your client’s information as it is stated in the ‘contact details’ section of the form. While you may need to invent some information, try using the newspaper story to investigate the real facts where possible.

2. Provide the ‘application details’ by writing which description most closely describes your application for access by describing the ‘nature’ of the information you are seeking to access. Again, try to remain as authentic as possible.

3. State the following:

i. ‘which agency’ you are applying to ii. ‘particular details’ but only of the ‘subject matter of the document/s’ you are seeking and iii. the ‘type of document’.

In three sentences, discuss the relevance of this information in terms of the RTI/FOI application process and any relevant provisions in the legislation.

4. What is your preferred ‘access type’ as legal representative of your client. In one sentence explain why this is your preference.

5. Write a brief paragraph (up to_4 sentences) explaining whether there is any other information or relevant sections on the form that you would advise your client should be provided in order to improve the outcome of the request for information. (Identify the information and discuss why you would provide it). Do NOT include information about yourself as a lawyer seeking access on someone’s behalf or ‘payment details’.