LW304 LEGAL DRAFTING TUTORIAL 1 SAMPLE ANSWERS

Complete these activities and bring a printed copy to your tutorial class (F2F) or post to the Online
Discussion Forum as instructed (Online).

1. Legal Research Exercise

You are interning at the Office of the Public Prosecutor. Your supervising lawyer is working
on a case. In this case, the defendant, Michael Johns, allegedly got into an argument at
Electro nightclub with another patron, Joseph Tabi. Michael Johns allegedly shouted at him
“if I see you around, you’ll be in serious trouble – I’ll bash you and make you regret you
disrespected me!”. Later that night, Michael Johns was walking home and he saw Joseph
Tabi standing at a bus stop. He approached Joseph from behind and punched him in the back
of the head. Joseph fell forward and hit his face on the ground, breaking his nose. Michael
then kicked him in the stomach and on his body. He ran away when police came. Joseph
was taken to hospital. He sustained a broken nose and also hit his knee badly due to falling
forward. He needs surgery and the doctors have said the injury to his knee is likely to be
permanent.

Choose either the Fiji or Vanuatu jurisdiction:

A. What offence/s can Michael Johns be charged with under the criminal law of your
chosen jurisdiction? Explain your answer
B. What is the name of the criminal law of your chosen jurisdiction and the section/s that
would apply to the offence/s you have identified?

Note: When answering, please outline your research plan, and how you came to the answer,
i.e. what source/s did you use?

For Vanuatu:

Relevant Act: Penal Code – Students should identify Paclii as the source for Vanuatu
Legislation

- For the verbal threat made to bash Joseph:

Section 114 A – threatening language –

(1) A person must not use threatening

a. Written, spoken or automated words; or
b. Gestures

Towards another person

(2) A person who fails to comply with subsection (1) commits an offence punishable on
conviction to imprisonment for a term not exceeding three years.

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Some students will refer to the old provision of abusive and threatening language in the now
repealed section 121. This is an important lesson in checking Paclii for amendments. The
amendment to introduce 114A was made in 2021 in an amendment entitled Statute Law
(Miscellaneous Provisions Act No.2 of 2021)

For the physical assault of punching and the resulting injury to the knee:

Students should identify Section 107 – intentional assault – students should identify that the injury
caused may fall within section 107(b) – damage of temporary nature OR section 107(c) if damage is
of a permanent nature.

The elements required to prove this would be found by reviewing case law and understanding how
the provisions of the Penal Code are applied. The basic elements of the offence are:

1. Michael assaulted Joseph

2. He did so intentionally
3. And the assault caused temporary or permanent injury

The Act does not define what constitutes permanent. We are told here in the facts the injury is
permanent but it is worth noting that there is no definition in the Act. Again, students would need
to look to case law to identify what a permanent injury is.

Students should identify that there are differing penalties depending on the damage. Students should
identify that in Vanuatu, the 2016 amendments to the Penal Code increased penalties for section
107 to 5 years for temporary damage and 10 years for permanent damage.

For Fiji:

Question 1:

1. The key word here is to ‘explain’. For academic writing, this means to offer a detailed and
exact rationale behind an idea or principle, or a set of reasons for a situation or attitude.
Make clear how and why something happens.1

2. Relevant Legislation: Crimes Act 2009 – Primary sources are PacLII or the Laws of Fiji
website (laws.gov.fj). Secondary Sources are case law and criminal law textbooks. To draft
an actual charge, refer to Archbold Criminal Pleadings, Evidence and Practice. To interpret
technical or legal terms in legislation, refer to Black’s Law Dictionary. There are many
secondary resources.

NB:- PacLII still refers to the Crimes Act as the Crimes Decree. The Laws of Fiji website
has updated versions of all legislation. Further research into the status of the legislation
would show that section 3 of the Interpretation Act 1967 of Fiji converted the earlier
promulgated decree into an Act of Parliament. Quoting your legislation as ‘Decree’ reflects
a need for precision in research. Quick tip: on the Laws of Fiji website, the Table of

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Understanding your assignment questions: A short guide, Academic skills short guide to assignments, University of
Birmingham Library Services (Found at https://libguides.bham.ac.uk/c.php?g=679100&p=4839567).

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 Amendments for each legislation is available when you click on “Crimes Act 2009” on the
left side-bar of the screen.

3. Research Plan:

Step 1: Identify all actus reus and respective mens rea.

Step 2: Research primary sources i.e., the latest version of the legislation governing
criminal law with penalising provisions.

Step 3: Research secondary sources i.e., case law and legal texts, to apply actus reus
and mens rea against the criminal provisions and identify correct charges. Use
secondary sources for interpretation of terms if the legislation (primary source) does
not itself provide a definition.

4. For the threat: The first criminal act in the course of events is the threat. The crime of
Criminal Intimidation found in section 375(1)(a)(i) and (iv) is most fitting under the Crimes
Act 2009. Threat is also defined in section 4 (interpretation provision) of the Crimes Act
2009. You may also consider a lesser charge of Threatening Conduct found in section 7(2)
of the Minor Offences Act 1971. Please observe the manner in which these provisions are
drafted, the indent, and the numerical paragraphs indicating options, which together, form
the complete offence.

Observe the provision headed Menaces in section 353 of the Crimes Act 2009. It defines a
form of threat. The provision is placed in Part 17 Fraudulent Conduct, and under Division 8
Unwarranted Demands indicating that this does not fit the present fact scenario. Section 353
is also not a penalising provision, that is, it has no penalty (e.g., a pecuniary penalty or an
imprisonment term).

5. For the assault and injury: Possible offences include -

i. section 255(a) Acts Intended to cause grievous harm or
ii. section 258 – Grievous Harm. The substantial difference here is the applicable
category of mens rea (Read Part 5-General Elements of a Criminal Offence, and in
particular Division 3-Fault Elements of an Offence).
iii. section 261 – Unlawful Wounding
iv. section 275 – Assault Causing Actual Bodily Harm

Students should identify definitions of grievous harm and harm in section 4 ‘interpretation’
– note that the definition of grievous harm includes serious or permanent injury to a person’s
health which would likely capture the knee injury and the broken nose. Wound is also
defined in section 4 and the definition captures the injury to the knee as well as to the nose.
In reality, the charge you choose will depend on the extent of injury identified by the
medical expert as per medico-legal definitions, matched against the section 4 definitions.

2. According to the textbook, when looking at ‘internal factors’ to interpret a document, there
are two ‘golden rules’ or principles that apply. What are these rules? Please explain in your
own words how the two rules apply in legal interpretation.
Students should identify the following rules and explain them in their own words:

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- The ‘Ordinary sense of the words’ – this means that the words in the document are given
their ordinary meaning (usually a dictionary can be referred to but ultimately it is up to the
Judge to determine the ordinary meaning of the words)
- The words must be interpreted in the context of the document as a whole (this means that we
must look at the whole document to put the words into context and fully understand their
meaning)

3. Rewrite the ‘passive voice’ sentence constructions below using the active voice:

a. The dinner is being prepared by my father

My father is preparing dinner
b. A meeting was called by the Chief
The Chief called a meeting
c. My eighteenth birthday will always be remembered with fondness by me
I will always remember my eighteenth birthday fondly
d. The wild boar was killed by the hunter
The hunter killed the wild boar
e. The room is to be locked by the students at 10 p.m. and the key must be returned to
the teacher.
Students must lock the room at 10 p.m. and return the key to the teacher
f. A good time was had by Jessie and her friends when they attended Fest Napuan
Jessie and her friends had a good time at Fest Napuan

4. Edit the sentences below to make them less wordy – remove unnecessary words and
redraft for clearer, plain language writing

a. Alice is a woman who succeeds at everything she does.

Alice is a successful woman / Alice succeeds at everything
b. John left and departed the room in an abrupt manner.
John left the room abruptly
c. I am writing this letter to you in regard to your letter of 28 June 2023
I refer to your letter of 28 June 2023
d. Mary felt sick and, at that point in time, she made a decision to go home
Mary felt sick and decided to go home
e. Despite the fact that Barry was scared, he was able to walk over the swinging bridge.
Although Barry was scared, he walked over the swinging bridge

5. Identify the different meanings in the following sentences and then try to redraft them
without any ambiguity:

a. The burglar robbed the woman with the knife.

Two meanings: either the burglar had the knife and used it in the robbery or the
woman had the knife while the burglar robbed her

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 “The burglar used a knife to rob the woman (note there are multiple possible
answers)
b. The municipal agreed to fill the potholes with the town residents
Two meanings: either the municipal agreed with the town residents that the hole
would be filled or the municipal decided to fill the hole with the bodies of the town
residents.
“The municipal agreed with the town residents that the Municipal would fill the
potholes” – Again multiple possible answers.
c. Jenny went shopping with her daughter in her pink dress
Two meanings: who was wearing the pink dress – it could be Jenny or it could be her
daughter
“Jenny went shopping with her daughter who was wearing a pink dress”

6. Redraft the following sentences to make them shorter, using plain language drafting
principles.
a. Do not fail or forget to inform and notify your supervisor when you are unable to be
present and available in the work place due to a medical illness of any kind.
You must inform your supervisor if you are ill
b. Geoffrey provided an explanation of his report to his supervisor.
Geoffrey explained his report to his supervisor
c. Due to the fact that he liked chocolate, Marco was very happy and elated when his
grandmother cooked and prepared a delicious and yummy chocolate cake
Michael was happy when his Grandmother made a delicious chocolate cake
d. We currently have rooms that are not occupied available for the date range of August
to October
Rooms are available from August to October
e. The show that was on the TV that my dad owns was a new show that was really
interesting.
The new show on my dad’s TV was really interesting
f. The bands played songs that were fantastic, so we danced and danced from morning
until night.
We danced all night to the band’s fantastic songs.

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