Since 2007, the Provincial Court and the Peter A. Allard School of Law at the University of British Columbia have partnered in a Judicial Externship Program. In 2026, the Thompson Rivers University Faculty of Law joined the program. The program provides an opportunity for third-year law students to spend a term working with Provincial Court judges for credit towards their law degree. The Court benefits from research assistance not otherwise available. 

Interns are assigned to a courthouse (or a rotation of courthouses to ensure exposure to all aspects of the Court’s work) and work with judges from Monday through Thursday of each week. Friday mornings are devoted to a seminar held at the law school. 

They receive training from judges on topics including the impact of judicial ethics and independence on their work, the purpose of judgments, criminal law and sentencing, family and child protection<p><span lang="EN-US">The area of law dealing with the safety and well-being of children and governed by BC’s </span><span lang="EN-US">Child, Family and Community Service Act </span><span lang="EN-US">or Indigenous child protection laws</span><span lang="EN-US">.</span><span>&nbsp;</span></p> law, and civil law. Interns’ work includes research, preparing memoranda, attending trials and other proceedings, and other tasks to assist judges. Interns also have the opportunity to accompany a judge and a court party when they travel to court in remote communities of BC. 

An Indigenous law student’s perspective on a circuit court