Legal Research

Supreme Court Advocacy Institute Helps Lawyers Prepare For Their Big Day In Court

By Michel-Adrien Sheppard

The Globe and Mail features an article in yesterday’s paper about the Supreme Court Advocacy Institute, an organization that puts together mock sessions to help lawyers who are about to appear in front of the Supreme Court of Canada.

The Institute organized mock court hearings for 20 percent of all the cases heard last year by Canada’s highest court, according to the newspaper. Some of Canada’s top litigators volunteer their time to act as judges:

“Like musicologists discussing a classical composition, the ‘judges’ then take apart a lawyer’s arguments and suggest where they may fall flat, distract the judges or try their patience. They also pepper counsel with tough questions, ruthlessly cut off submissions, and even adopt the idiosyncrasies of particular Supreme Court judges.”

“Each session is followed by a candid, down-to-earth critique of what worked, didn’t work, or just plain bombed - a process that can be as useful to veterans as it is to Supreme Court novices.”

The best part of the article is the list of “rules of engagement”, or recommendations for how to behave in front of the Justices of the Supreme Court:

• First impressions are important
• Avoid talking over the heads of judges who lack background in a particular field
• All questions from the bench must be answered
• Not responding at all is better than obfuscating
• Steer clear of eliciting sympathy for a client or arguing the facts of a case
• Don’t become bogged down in a debate with a single, feisty judge
• Maintain eye contact with all nine judges, and always try to locate the one who has posed a question
• The Supreme Court can and will refashion existing law, but it does it in modest, incremental moves
• Judges do not like being talked down to

One can find more information on the Advocacy Institute website.

Cross-posted to Library Boy.

Full post as published by Slaw.ca on June 11, 2008 (boomark / email).