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Innocence Project: Law School shares Attorney General’s Pro Bono Award

Award winner, Dr Michael Naughton

Award winner, Dr Michael Naughton

25 April 2007

Dr Michael Naughton, School of Law and Department of Sociology, is co-recipient of a joint institutional award from the Attorney General to recognise 'pro bono' activities by students and law schools.

The Attorney General’s Pro Bono Awards are organised by LawWorks (formerly the Solicitors Pro Bono Group) to celebrate the best legal pro bono activities undertaken by students and law schools, and the positive impact that this work has had on those helped.

The “Highly Commended” Award to Bristol and Cardiff was in the category “Best Contribution by a Law School”. It recognises their on-going partnership to develop the sustainability of Innocence Project pro bono activity by students in the UK, through the vehicle of the Innocence Network UK (INUK), at the heart of which is the relationship with the practising criminal legal profession also assisting on a pro bono basis.

Innocence Projects are ‘live-client’ student-led specialist clinical legal educational ventures which centre upon the study of the possible wrongful conviction of the innocent. They attempt to find legal grounds for alleged innocent victims of wrongful conviction to  achieve a successful referral back to the Court of Appeal (Criminal Division) (CACD) or, if they are a second or out-of-time appeal, via an application to the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC). There are presently seven active university Innocence Projects affiliated to the INUK, including the University of Bristol Innocence Project (UoBIP), with about ten others under development.

Bristol and Cardiff are pleased to have formal recognition and credit within the pro bono legal community for their contribution to encouraging collaborative pro bono ventures in other UK law schools.

 

Further information

For further information on Bristol University’s Innocence Project, visit: www.bris.ac.uk/news/2007/5387.html
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