Frequently Asked Questions

The following are answers to some of the basic questions that we are regularly asked by colleagues exploring setting up a member innocence project. They are culled from the more comprehensive INUK ‘Model Standards for Innocence Project Work’ which guides the working practices of member innocence projects (available to Members under ‘Resources’ via the Forum).

1) Is insurance needed?

Each institution must ensure that they are insured in respect of innocence project activity. INUK does not offer any insurance in this regard, but we do not anticipate that there will be any onerous requirements on existing institutional liability cover. Simple notification and a brief description of activity to insurers may suffice because innocence projects will not be offering or giving legal advice unless they operate as solicitors’ practices. Universities that already have pro bono or clinical education schemes will already be insured, and notification to insurers of the new activity will normally suffice.

2) What level of staff supervision is required?

Staff supervision is usually undertaken by the director (staff member) of the innocence project who is responsible for the overall running and management of his/her innocence project. Whilst the aim is for innocence projects to be ‘student-led’, the staff supervisor should ensure that students work in accordance with the innocence projects protocols, that clients are regularly updated on the progress of their cases, and that legal advice is not inadvertently given and/or that inappropriate representations are not made (Members see INUK ‘Model Standards for Innocence Project Work’, section 5).

3) What is the time commitment?

Although there is no ‘optimum time’ that students should spend on casework, if an innocence project is an extra-curricular venture aimed at supplementing and enriching students’ learning experience at a university level, it is recommended that students commit on average between 4-6 hours a weeks over the duration of the academic term. To ensure that students manage and utilise their time effectively, it is also recommended that each casework team/firm should have a time log recording the number of hours that each student has dedicated to innocence project work (e.g. S. Smith - reading through witness statements and making a summary - 4 hours), which should be regularly reviewed by the staff supervisor.

4) How many students are needed to run an innocence project?

The size of our member innocence projects vary, ranging from smaller projects consisting of 5-8 students working on 1 or 2 cases, to larger projects with over 70 students working on up to 10 cases. The amount of management required and the organisational model therefore differs depending on the size and scale of the project.

A typical model adopted by most member innocence projects is for students to work in smaller ‘Firms’, with each firm tasked with 1 to 3 cases (at varying stages of casework), and led by a ‘Firm Manager’ (usually a final year student who has completed the INUK training) whose role is to arrange firm meetings, allocate work to members, and report directly to the staff supervisor.

The ways in which student members are organised may also have to be slightly adapted depending on the stage of development of the innocence project. In the early days of an innocence project, where students may be awaiting case documents, there may not be a substantial amount of investigative work. During this early stage, systems will need to be established and implemented, and basic research/fundraising done, which is key to ensure the long-term sustainability of an innocence project and also create work to keep students occupied whilst awaiting for the case documents to arrive. However, a firm may require more caseworkers to organise the large volumes of paperwork and case documents when they are eventually obtained by the innocence project.  

Once an institution becomes a member of the INUK, the staff supervisor/project director will be able to utilise the online discussion forum to ask questions and share ideas on how to manage and organise his/her innocence project. The INUK also hosts an annual Spring Meeting, where students and staff come together to exchange experiences and ideas and best practices for innocence project work.

5) Do all students need to attend an INUK training programme?

It is clearly an advantage to staff and students if everyone involved with the innocence project has experienced, first hand, a basic introductory training programme. The INUK annual training event is spread over two and a half days and offers an introduction to the law, procedure and practice surrounding this area of work. Of course, it is not possible for the training programme to be ‘all-encompassing’ and it is not expected that students will become ‘expert’ case investigators within this short period of time. Instead, the training programme aims to give staff and students basic knowledge and information on the key aspects of innocence project work from which they can build upon through ‘hands-on’ and experiential learning gained from working on cases. INUK expects, at the very least, that all student case managers in member innocence projects have attended an INUK training programme, so that they have the fundamentals for guiding fellow case workers.

6) How should a project select students as caseworkers?

Each member innocence project is free to select students in a way to suit them. An application form that might be used is contained in the Innocence Projects Starter pack that is provided to Members.

Some of our members accept all students who apply to them. Others ask students to undertake particular tasks such as writing an essay, carrying out a specific piece of research, or producing a reflective account based on two sessions of the student’s choice from the training programme. Staff then look at or mark the work produced to aid selection. Some members arrange for students to informally interview potential new caseworker colleagues and some directors interview the students themselves.

The overriding concern is to ensure that potential new recruits understand the importance of the commitment and that casework should not simply be treated as a CV-enhancing brief interlude.

Some of our members have had difficulties with students who sign up for casework, and who subsequently do not put in the required time or effort. A student contract of commitment is recommended (a specimen is provided in the Innocence Projects Starter Pack) to ensure that students take their commitment seriously. It is also recommended that an institution has in place a system for removing students from a project if they fail to show sufficient commitment.

7) How are cases obtained?

The INUK Database Team will refer eligible cases (i.e., cases involving claims of factual innocence) from our central database to member innocence projects upon request. Member projects are expected to take cases from our central casebank rather than advertise for their own cases. Experience has shown that this system reduces the administrative burden on member innocence projects and prevents duplication of effort by different innocence projects on the same case.

Members are expected to refer individual queries from potential clients to the central INUK database team, who will send a standard questionnaire and make a preliminary decision on eligibility. INUK will then allocate that case, if eligible, to the referring member project, if it wishes to take on the case. In this way, central records are kept and updated regularly, and, again, duplication of effort is avoided.

INUK makes an initial provisional allocation of a case to a member project, and gives the member the opportunity to decide if that case meets their requirements, and if they wish to take it on. Once the member innocence project confirms that it will take on the case, the Database Team will inform the client of the name of the innocence project taking on the case, and from that point onwards, correspondence with the client will be taken over by the member innocence project. Alternatively, if the institution receiving the case initially deems it unsuitable for that project, it will return the papers to the central database to await allocation to another project.

Ideally, although not always possible, individual member innocence projects will be allocated cases where the crime was committed in their geographical area (town, city, county, region). This facilitates case investigation, minimising the need for student caseworkers to travel long distances when investigating cases. Alternatively, innocence projects may wish to work with prisoners maintaining innocence in their local prison to allow easy access to the prisoner.

Despite a rigorous screening process to distinguish the different types of innocence claim and allocate only cases where claims of innocence on questionnaires relate to claims of factual/actual innocence, it is not possible for the INUK to guarantee the innocence of the ‘clients’ in allocated cases. Indeed, upon further investigation from the case files, facts may subsequently emerge that mean that clients are not innocent. This is an inevitable factor of innocence project work and we consider that any work done by students on real cases will enhance their learning experience, even if a case ultimately proves unworkable. This will be rare, but where this happens, INUK will do what it can to assist members to terminate such cases, assisting in correspondences with the ‘client’ to inform her/him of the nature of their guilt and the reason for the withdrawal from the case.

Upon allocation of a case to a member project, INUK will seek to establish the position of the potential client regarding any legal representation, and where the potential client has a solicitor acting, aim to reach an agreement acceptable to all parties as to the basis of the member innocence project’s involvement (for more information, Members see INUK ‘Model Standards for Innocence Project Work’, sections 3 and 7.2).

8) What is the best practice to terminate an investigation when this is needed?

Member innocence projects should inform the Database Team of its intention to pull out of a case, indicating their reasons for withdrawal, for example, if a solicitor wants to take on the case or if evidence emerges that indicates that the client is guilty.

The main objective of innocence projects is to educate, and learning about the difficulties and ethical issues involved in withdrawing from cases is a crucial part of students’ learning experiences. In cases where ‘clients’ are found to be guilty, students can learn a lot from drafting a letter spelling out the reasons for their withdrawal, what they have learnt from the case.

If an innocence project withdraws from a case that remains eligible, it will, of course, be made available for allocation to another member innocence project.

9) How are supervising lawyers found?

The INUK Innocence Projects Starter Pack contains a template letter which member innocence projects can send to law firms asking practitioners to get involved. Member innocence projects can also invite pro bono organisations, local law firms and their local press etc. to the launch of their projects, which will help raise awareness and attract practitioner involvement.

Alternatively, the INUK Secretary will liaise with the National Legal Adviser to link member innocence projects with practitioners to provide legal guidance.

10) How does the relationship with the legal profession work?

Member innocence projects do not replace the role of practising lawyers and do NOT give legal advice. Instead, students work with them to offer “extra minds and pairs of hands”, provided everyone is in agreement, to try to find new evidence or argument to support an application to the CCRC, where a person is maintaining innocence. Where the client already has a solicitor acting towards submitting a CCRC application, students will work under the supervision of that solicitor (by agreement). Where the client does not currently have a solicitor working on a CCRC application, the innocence project’s supervising lawyers will guide the students. Any legal advice will come from the relevant solicitor or barrister, and not from the innocence project staff or students. It is important to note that innocence projects do not replace legal aid but, rather, offer pro bono (free) assistance to clients for whom legal aid is not available.

11) How are prison visits arranged?

To best ensure confidentiality, it is recommended that innocence projects should try, as far as possible, to obtain legal, rather than family, visits when interviewing clients in prison. Prison visits and details of interviews with clients should also be documented.

Legal visits can be obtained if students are accompanied by a practising lawyer, so supervising lawyers are often happy to accompany students on legal prison visits. Some member projects have negotiated with their local prisons for students to have legal visits with clients/ prisoners, accompanied by a staff supervisor who is not a practicing solicitor/barrister.

12) Do innocence projects work with campaigning/ victim-support groups?

We recognise that campaign/victim-support groups can offer a great deal of support to the clients of innocence projects and their families and have a wealth of vital information that can assist case investigations. There are also educational benefits for students from working with campaign/victim-support organisations, as it makes students alive to the reality of what happens to victims and families when a possible wrongful conviction has occurred.

However, it has to be emphasised that as the INUK and its member innocence projects are NOT campaign organisations or victim-support groups, the importance of maintaining a position of professional non-alignment must be stressed.

13) What happens during university Vacation periods?

Most innocence projects operate only during term-time, and clients will be aware of this from initial letters of instruction from a member project. Where cases are running during university vacation periods, a professional standard of management and supervision is still required.

It is expected that member projects will notify the clients before any vacation periods of the temporary halt in casework, and again, write to the client shortly after the term starts, when casework resumes. More details on expected communication with the client are contained in the INUK Protocols. The key expectation is to regularly keep the client informed and updated.

14) What happens when students leave?

There may be several changes of student caseworkers throughout the duration of an innocence project case (especially as cases will normally run for several years). Staff supervisors will, therefore, need to think about continuity when recruiting new members for their innocence projects, which can be facilitated by having a mixture of undergraduate or postgraduate/vocational students from different year groups.

15) How are innocence projects funded?

The cost of operating an innocence project is minimal, in our experience. For most innocence projects, office equipment will be provided by their universities and most of the costs incurred are logistical, such as students’ travelling expenses when visiting prisoners, etc. Many member innocence projects have also adopted innovative methods for sponsorship and fund-raising, such as organising fund-raising events and approaching student unions and local law firms for sponsorship and support.