LOCAL authorities are being schooled in how to defend themselves against legal claims.

Council officials from Redcar and Cleveland, Scarborough, Hartlepool, North Yorkshire, Middlesbrough and Stockton, attended a mock trial complete with a fake judge and barristers and claimants.

Even the venue for the workshop, part of the axed Samsung microwave plant near Billingham, was fitted out to look like a courtroom.

Alison Shepherd, a partner with Crutes solicitors, organisers of the event, said: "This was a chance for people from the local councils to see the kind of process there could be if there was a legal claim against them which proceeded to court."