Helpful Tips

Regardless of the office being recruited for, here are some helpful tips to bear in mind when completing your Application Form or preparing for your interview.

Tips on how to complete an Application Form

Preparation is key.

We recommend that you thoroughly research the office for which you are applying.

  • Consider taking part in our Judicial Shadowing Scheme. This could be one way to gain an insight into the Court or Tribunal that you're interested in.
  • Speak to others about their experience of the court or tribunal you are interested in.
  • Read our Guide to Judicial Careers (PDF 2.0 MB) and check whether the Court or Tribunal you are interested in has its own website.
  • Take time to seriously consider your own knowledge and experience and about how it is relevant to the judicial office.
  • Visit our useful links page for some further information.

Having considered the best examples/evidence to demonstrate your suitability for the judicial office, begin to refine them against the:

Judicial Selection Framework

1) Knowledge

2) Analysis and Making Decisions

3) Leadership and Management

4) Communication and

5) Understanding People and Society.

Aim for a clear structure for each of your examples

The following structure may assist:

S - T - A - R

Situation Briefly outline the situation – to give context.

Task  State what were you trying to achieve?

Action  What action did you take? What did you actually do? What was your unique contribution and role?

Result  Describe the result. What happened and what did you learn? Did you achieve what you set out to do? What difficulties and challenges did you face? Did you have to adapt your approach to achieve your goal?

Invited for interview?

Selection Committees, assess your achievements and your potential through interviews and other assessment methods.

The interviews for judicial office are perhaps more structured and take a more systematic approach than traditional job interviews.You should expect the interview to be a mix of knowledge and competency based-questions, while others may focus on hypothetical situations.

What are competency based questions?

Competency based questions will concentrate on what you have done. These questions are asked because they rely on the premise that past behaviour is an indicator of future performance.

What are hypothetical questions?

Hypothetical questions will involve asking what you would do in a given situation.

Tips to prepare for a written assessment

  • Managing your time effectively will be of utmost importance when sitting a written assessment.
  • Study the Question and Answer Booklet carefully.
  • Listen to and read the instructions carefully.
  • Allocate your time in the assessment wisely.
  • Allocate an appropriate amount of time to read the background information.
  • Allocate an appropriate amount of time for each answer. Remember to allow yourself more time to answer those questions with higher marks.
  • Allow time to read back over your answers at the end.

Tips to prepare for interview

  • Avail of the judicial point of contact  if one is provided by NIJAC. This individual will typically be someone already in or experience of the vacant judicial office and who is only too happy to speak to applicants over the phone about their work, and the office which is advertised.
  • Familiarise yourself with relevant case law and legislation.
  • Read your application – which you can not bring into the interview – as you may be asked questions about something in it.
  • If you lack direct experience, what else can you tell the Selection Committee that demonstrates your potential to fulfil the office?
  • Pre-empt questions the Selection Committee may ask.
  • Practice your responses using the STAR technique. Ask a friend or family member to critique your responses.
  • Consider what follow-up or probing questions the Selection Committee may ask in response to your answers. Ask a family member or friend to play "devil's advocate" and ask you follow up questions.

Interview questions

Questions are typically aimed at assessing some or all of the Judicial Selection Framework i.e.

  • Knowledge
  • Analysis and Making Decisions
  • Leadership and Management
  • Communication and
  • Understanding People and Society.

Do expect probing questions in follow up to your answers. Questions are often framed to open a topic for further exploration.

Typical sample questions for legal roles

Knowledge

  • Give an example of how you have enhanced your knowledge to improve your work.
  • Please outline a case or cases which you consider have made a significant contribution to Northern Ireland law.
  • Think of an area of work that best represents your professional achievement to date. Describe the achievement and what contribution, if any, it made to the law?

Analysis and Making Decisions

  • Give an example from your career can you tell us of an important decision you have made, and how you arrived at your conclusions, recommendations or guidance or at the outcome.
  • Describe a complex piece of work which involved detailed analysis and the development of a recommendation or guidance, or the reaching of a decision. What key factors did you consider, and what was the outcome?
  • Please give an example of when you made a contentious decision regarding an emotive subject. Tell us how you separated the facts from the emotions involved.

Leadership and Management

  • Describe how you manage your time, in a current or past role.
  • This role requires high level organisational and planning skills. Describe a piece of work you where you were under pressure and working to a tight timescale.
  • Give us an instance of when you had to effectively adapt your style or approach to manage a particularly difficult situation.

Communication

  • What do you need to consider when you when explaining a legal concept to a non-lawyer?
  • Can you provide an example of when you had to communicate a difficult message which would have wide ranging consequences for the individual(s) involved? What did you have to bear in mind? How did you deliver the message? What was the outcome?

Understanding People and Society

  • Describe how you responded to a situation in which you were exposed to an unfamiliar culture and/or tradition. The example does not have to relate to the workplace.
  • A member of the travelling community appears in court/tribunal unrepresented and, when you ask him/her whether he/she wishes to avail of legal representation, he/she tells you that he/she cannot trust solicitors who do not understand his community.How do you respond?

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