ROMA TRE SMALL SAVERS PROTECTION LEGAL CLINIC
Innovative approaches for addressing target groups, by providing for example: more attractive education and training programmes
The Small Savers Protection Legal Clinic (SSPLC) provides students with a qualified legal education on the legal framework about consumers and small savers protection in the banking and financial sector, especially as regards the enforcement of their rights and the filing of claims before the "Arbitro Bancario e Finanziario" (ABF - for banking issues) and the “Arbitro delle Controversie Finanziarie” (ACF – for financial issues); builds a network cooperation between academics and professionals; promotes knowledge of alternative methods of dispute resolution within the academic community and amongst.
The SSPLC uses participatory approaches and ICT-based methodologies: in particular, students will use a more strategic and integrated use of ICTs and open educational resources (OER) that will allow them to get familiar with ICT based methodologies.
In fact:
-all the relevant documents (the case folder, the legislative and judicial materials) are available on line, in the private section of the Faculty website, in the electronic format (none of the documents will be in paper format), since, given the transversality of the subject, there is not a dedicated handbook for this topics;
– thanks to the drafting of the claim, students will: (i) learn to use legal databases, which they were not previously familiar with (two lessons are entirely dedicated to teach students how to conduct a computer-assisted legal research); (ii) prepare written advice (iii) work in the class only with laptops (theirs or the ones provided by the Faculty), as they will learn to share document in clouds, use just one draft shared by the all class, mark it up and and make it circulate by email;
-the entire ABF/ACF procedure is online, so that students will face with online dispute resolution (ODR)
The SSPLC allows the students to improve processes of recognition and validation of competences, having regard to the greater effectiveness of activities for the disadvantaged groups and the differences in learning outcomes linked to the socio-economic disparities.
The preference in the selection of the cases goes to the ones of particular relevance, even from the social standpoint, having special regard to the structurally vulnerable subjects, to weak, illiterate and poor consumers (as for the subjective element); and to those who had requested loans for house purchase purposes (as for the objective element, protection the right to an adequate house), or had invested their own life savings. These features of the LC and the possibility for the students to attend the meetings with clients, interview them and listen to their stories, led the student to better understand and improve their responsiveness to social and cultural diversity.
The cases dealt with by the clinic are not conceived in-house, but they are filed by consumers' associations which have a connection with the Faculty and the course teacher, which also promotes the cooperation with partners from other socio-economic sectors.