Capstone

Capstone: the Brindle Boatworks fire

Calder & Voss is an invented law firm. Its client, Brindle Boatworks, a small family boatyard, has lost a workshop and two boats in a fire, and its insurer has refused the claim, saying that the fire may have been started deliberately, or by a breach of the policy’s conditions on securing the premises. The yard’s owner, Ms Okonkwo, is anxious and angry, and says: ‘The insurers are calling us liars.’ The fire was first noticed on the evening of 3 October. Two people were in the yard: Dana, a boat builder who has worked there for six years, and Marcus, a subcontractor who had an argument with Ms Okonkwo about an unpaid invoice earlier that week. A neighbour, Mr Haldane, says that he saw a white van by the gate. The fire brigade’s report has not yet arrived. You are the associate asked to interview the people, and you have a week. Everything here is invented. Use the tools of the course to plan, and write a short plan for the matter.

General education on listening and interviewing, using invented people, firms and events. It states psychological research in broad terms and is not a substitute for specialist training, and it is not legal advice. Rules on interviewing, contact with witnesses and represented persons, recording and the interviewing of suspects and vulnerable people differ between countries and change: check the rules that apply to you and take advice.