The Citizenship Foundation is developing a very cool legal education app — and it needs law student and lawyer writers

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By Alex Aldridge on

Help charity create legal plotlines to engage young people with the law

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The Citizenship Foundation is working on a new mobile phone quiz app to demystify the law.

The SmartLaw app will feature a host of questions about the legal issues arising from entertainment stories in the news and other popular culture — and go out to tens of thousands of school kids.

But the Citizenship Foundation — which runs the excellent Bar Mock Trial Competition and acclaimed Lawyers in Schools programme — needs some help from lawyers and law students to formulate those questions*.

Are you the type of person who worries about IP law when you watch the Great British Bake Off (who owns the recipes?), or housing law on Grand Designs, or, well … everything when you watch Breaking Bad? If so, this could be the constructive outlet for those energies which you are obviously in need of.

Detail-obsessed sports fans, pedantic news buffs and Mail Online sidebar of shame geeks are also encouraged to get in touch.

To get involved, please email emma.watts@citizenshipfoundation.org.uk.

*SmartLaw example question

Synopsis:

Recently on POPULAR TV SHOW, Character X was offered a job working for Character Y. Character X wanted to wait to start her new job until the school holidays but Character Y is insisting she start now. Character X is only 14 years old and still in school.

Question:

Can Character X work during term time, and if so, how many hours a week can she legally work during term time?

A. 12
B. 35
C. 25
D. None

Answer:

The answer is A. 14 year-old may work for up to two hours on school days or Sundays and up to five hours on non-school days. They may work up to 12 hours a week during the school term, and up to 25 hours a week during school holidays, but they may not be employed before the end of the school day or before 7am and after 7pm.