Oral Advocacy and Court Craft
This domain tests how you perform in court: whether you can frame an application persuasively, handle the bench and comply with courtroom conventions and time limits. Assessment is usually by observation or transcript, and marks come from structure, responsiveness and restraint as much as from content.
Preparation
- Identify your three best points and the one-sentence answer to the case.
- Prepare a skeleton: the orders sought, the grounds in order, the authorities with pinpoints.
- Know the bundle index and where your documents are, so you never fumble.
- Keep a one-page list of the questions the judge is likely to ask and your answers.
Delivery
- Open with the order you seek and the single reason for it.
- Signpost: tell the court the three matters you will address and in what order.
- Use short sentences and pause; a judge writing notes cannot follow a torrent.
- Answer the question actually asked, immediately, then return to your structure.
- Concede the weak point gracefully rather than defending it - credibility is the currency.
Ethics in court
Disclose adverse authority that is directly in point. Correct any misstatement of law or fact at once, unprompted.
Court craft
Address the bench by its correct title; stand when appropriate; never interrupt opposing counsel except on a point of order or a genuine misstatement; never argue with the judge - reframe and reason.
Worked example
You seek a fourteen-day adjournment. Open: I appear for the applicant and seek a short adjournment on two grounds. First, disclosure was served yesterday evening, so the applicant cannot properly prepare. Second, the witness whose statement is exhibit three is unavailable and her evidence is central. Then meet the counter-argument before it is made: the delay is short, the trial date is unaffected, and the applicant offers to pay the costs thrown away. The reasoning shown is: order sought, grounds ranked, pre-emptive answer, proportionate remedy.
Traps that cost marks
- Reading submissions verbatim from the page.
- Overrunning the time estimate without seeking leave.
- Overstating the weight of an authority and being corrected.
- Ducking the judge's question to return to a prepared script.
- Failing to disclose authority that undercuts your position.