LAWS13012 - Succession

General Information

Unit Synopsis

This unit examines issues in Succession Law in Queensland. It covers the principles and practice relating to enduring powers of attorney, wills, testamentary capacity, intestacy, the administration of an estate (both testate and intestate) and family provision applications. Emphasis is placed on the importance of the relevant legislation, court decisions and statutory procedures to succession law practice and the unit offers insight into many of the practical aspects of practising in this area through authentic assessment tasks.

Details

Level Undergraduate
Unit Level 3
Credit Points 6
Student Contribution Band SCA Band 4
Fraction of Full-Time Student Load 0.125
Pre-requisites or Co-requisites

Prerequisite: 48 credit points of law units including LAWS12078 

Important note: Students enrolled in a subsequent unit who failed their pre-requisite unit, should drop the subsequent unit before the census date or within 10 working days of Fail grade notification. Students who do not drop the unit in this timeframe cannot later drop the unit without academic and financial liability. See details in the Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework).

Class Timetable View Unit Timetable
Residential School No Residential School

Unit Availabilities from Term 2 - 2024

There are no availabilities for this unit on or after Term 2 - 2024

Attendance Requirements

All on-campus students are expected to attend scheduled classes – in some units, these classes are identified as a mandatory (pass/fail) component and attendance is compulsory. International students, on a student visa, must maintain a full time study load and meet both attendance and academic progress requirements in each study period (satisfactory attendance for International students is defined as maintaining at least an 80% attendance record).

Assessment Overview

Recommended Student Time Commitment

Each 6-credit Undergraduate unit at CQUniversity requires an overall time commitment of an average of 12.5 hours of study per week, making a total of 150 hours for the unit.

Assessment Tasks

Assessment Task Weighting
1. Practical Assessment 40%
2. Written Assessment 60%

This is a graded unit: your overall grade will be calculated from the marks or grades for each assessment task, based on the relative weightings shown in the table above. You must obtain an overall mark for the unit of at least 50%, or an overall grade of ‘pass’ in order to pass the unit. If any ‘pass/fail’ tasks are shown in the table above they must also be completed successfully (‘pass’ grade). You must also meet any minimum mark requirements specified for a particular assessment task, as detailed in the ‘assessment task’ section (note that in some instances, the minimum mark for a task may be greater than 50%).

Consult the University’s Grades and Results Policy for more details of interim results and final grades

Past Exams

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Previous Feedback

Term 3 - 2021 : The overall satisfaction for students in the last offering of this course was 88.00% (`Agree` and `Strongly Agree` responses), based on a 39.06% response rate.

Feedback, Recommendations and Responses

Every unit is reviewed for enhancement each year. At the most recent review, the following staff and student feedback items were identified and recommendations were made.

Source: Generally positive student feedback
Feedback
Tutorial activities
Recommendation
That they be continued and be assessed for attendance and participation with allowances made for good reason for not attending. Recordings should be made available.
Action Taken
Recordings of all tutorials were made available within 48 hours of the tutorial. The rewrite of this unit moved away from participation marks and focused on authentic assessment tasks and skill-building.
Source: Generally positive student feedback but a source of dissent.
Feedback
Assessments One and Two, preparation of a will and the sharing and discussion of the students' posts.
Recommendation
That this novel approach to assessments be continued. Note, if this is not agreed there will need to be an approved change.
Action Taken
An authentic drafting task was retained, although the parameters were varied from the previous iteration to ensure academic integrity (by preventing the use of pro-forma wills in the task).
Source: Student feedback and UC
Feedback
Lectures
Recommendation
There should be recorded video lectures for each Topic.
Action Taken
The rewrite of this unit included weekly video lectures for all content and weekly welcome videos.
Source: Student feedback and UC
Feedback
The Take Home Paper should take place during a 24 hour window fixed well in advance.
Recommendation
Assessment Three should be amended accordingly. It may be necessary to coordinate the timing with other Term 3 UCs.
Action Taken
As the take home paper was held in the exam period, the take home paper date is scheduled centrally by the College. The College has determined that take home papers should be 6 hours duration only. Both of these aspects of the take home paper are now outside the Unit Coordinator's control.
Source: Reflection by Unit Coordinator and Learning & Teaching Coordinator
Feedback
Reduce the number of assessments
Recommendation
The number of assessments in the unit (currently four assessments) should be reduced to allow students more time to work on each assessment, particularly as T3 is a busy time of year.
Action Taken
In Progress
Source: Student feedback, Unit Coordinator reflection
Feedback
Retain the authentic drafting task
Recommendation
Retain authentic drafting exercises that expose students to tasks they would be expected to undertake as a newly qualified lawyer or trainee working in a firm specialising in wills and estate planning.
Action Taken
In Progress
Unit learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:

  1. Communicate effectively in writing, including drafting legal documents in accordance with procedural requirements and drafting conventions.
  2. Critically analyse the facts and law to provide advice on both practical and legal matters with reference to relevant legislation and case law.

Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Learning Outcomes
Assessment Tasks Learning Outcomes
1 2
1 - Practical Assessment • •
2 - Written Assessment • •
Alignment of Graduate Attributes to Learning Outcomes
• Introductory Level
• Intermediate Level
• Graduate Level
Graduate Attributes Learning Outcomes
1 2
1 - Communication •
2 - Problem Solving • •
3 - Critical Thinking •
4 - Information Literacy •
8 - Ethical practice •
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Graduate Attributes
• Introductory Level
• Intermediate Level
• Graduate Level
Assessment Tasks Graduate Attributes
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10