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Another Fine Competition – Deputy District Judge Crime 2016 – Magistrates’ Court

 

*****UPDATE 22 August 2016*****

Congratulations to all who made it through the online scenario. Now you need to provide evidence of your competencies by noon on Monday 5 September:

Help?

I’m frequently asked how I work with candidates; I work based on the needs of each individual candidate:application forms and interviews.

In terms of fees, I aim to keep my advice short and sweet; I charge £200 an hour but under my Pay Fair you pay what you want.

It takes me about 15 mins to  prepare feedback on draft competencies. Then we have a session discussing that. Time varies with candidates from 45 mins all in, to several sessions and possibly 4 hours. But on average 2-2.5 hours – all depends on you.

For selection days, I typically have two sessions with my candidates and I always encourage them to work with family, colleagues and friends – anyone who you trust will give you some straight advice and feedback.

I received this feedback from a successful JAC candidate last month: “Thank you so much. I couldn’t have done it without you.”

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“That’s great thank you so much” – I received this message from a candidate preparing for the online scenario test – if you’d like a copy of my guidance please just call or e-mail. In return, any donation to Simon on The Streets would be hugely appreciated.

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The Judicial Appointments Commission (JAC) has launched this competition – the deadline is 13:00 on 5 July – if you are on Twitter do follow them @becomeajudge for their latest updates. This is going to be an extremely tough competition so as well as being an excellent candidate I think you’ll also need a good sense of humour!

Previous competitions have been fluid with adjustments and tweaks being made as the competition has progressed.

I had a meeting with the JAC last year and made a number of recommendations and I’m delighted to see that they have adopted some of my suggestions. Most significantly only candidates who pass the qualifying tests will have to provide evidence of how you can demonstrate the competencies and nominate referees.

Link to Competition (Bookmark or add to your Favourites)

My Competition Overview Video

I recorded this in May before the shape of  the competition was confirmed but it will give you a quick overview of what is required.

Complete Your Personal Details

Although this is all relatively straight forward, it takes some time and requires some detail and dates. So have to hand:

Your NI number; Education Details; Professional Qualifications; Career Details;  Good Character & Diversity.

NB – No more than 7 unspent points for driving offences.

This question has been developed: “Give a brief summary of any additional career information eg publications and membership of specialist professional associations” in < 300 words.

Qualifying Tests

There will be a two stage sift:

1. A multiple choice test  between 16:00 to 22:00 on Tuesday 12 July 2016:

Part 1: 55 minute Situational Judgment test;

Part 2: 45 minute Critical Analysis test.

For those scoring in, I guess, the top 10% you will progress to the second stage

2.  An Online Scenario Test – this will require narrative responses to three questions.

The nearest stage 1 part 1 test you’ll find on the JAC website is the 00820_District Judge Civil Qualifying Test Questions – try and do this in the set time of 75 minutes – I can then send you the answers! It will at least give you a feel for the time pressure. NB the JAC have not published the Recorder Crime or DJ Crime qualifying tests.

For what it’s worth, here is a link to the JAC “are you suitable test“.

I guess most of you already subscribe to CrimeLine, if not do check it out, Andrew Keogh has already provided some excellent materials based on the JAC”s suggested reading – INVALUABLE RESOURCE.

I’m happy to provide some generic non-legal tips and advice on these qualifying tests – please just contact me and I’ll e-mail you my PDF. In return, any donation to Simon on The Streets would be hugely appreciated.

For those who make it through to the top c100 you are likely to have a tight window when you’ll need to submit your competencies and referees. As in other recent competitions there will be a short screening telephone interview and consideration of your competencies before they invite 50-60 of you to  the selection days.

If you have the inclination you can see how the most recent Recorder and Circuit Judge competitions progressed and know what to expect. If you haven’t yet found them – I’d be happy to share my blogs and videos, giving tips and advice, on application forms and interviews – please just ask.

If you would like to discuss anything please try me on 0796 999 7335 or e-mail tim@asktim.org and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.