OPEN MOOT & WITNESS EXAMINATION

ADVOCACY SKILLS SESSION

With guest speakers Lloyd Wicks and Mark Giddings

1. What is advocacy – and how does it relate to these competitions? Hints and tips at how to be a good advocate

2. Witness examination – Rules & Preparation Techniques

3. Open Moot – Rules & Preparation techniques4. Scoring criteria & Progression to the final

rounds 5. Guest speakers6. Questions

Outline of Seminar

Advocacy – at its heart is about supporting or defending an argument.

It is a skill of persuasion. Good advocates are able to present facts and law in conjunction

with each other in order to persuade Witness examination utilise volunteer witnesses in order for

advocates to adduce more information in order to persuade. Mooting focuses on setting detailed sets of facts in order for students to apply these facts to the law in such a way as to persuade.

First impressions are very important – advocacy as a performance

What is advocacy?

WITNESS EXAMINATIONRules

• Individuals are paired with a different team mate each week as they receive the indication of the charge facing a volunteer witness. The witness and team work together to tease out their argument and present a convincing case theory to a judge.

• Each team has their own witness and may also undertake cross examination of the opposing witness to weaken their argument.

The aim of witness examination is to be persuasive – You must persuade the judge through the evidence

you are able to present and extract from your witness that your client’s story is the real deal

WITNESS EXAMINATIONRounds

• Competitors in the preliminary rounds will deliver one of either the Opening address and Examination-in-chief or the Closing address and the Cross-examination.

• Competitors will be randomly allocated to sides in the trial

• Materials given to competitors will consist of:o The statement of their witness; o  The statement of the opponent’s witness; o  The relevant section(s) of any Act(s).

• Questions will be released ninety minutes prior to the commencement of judging for each round, and teams will get to meet with their witness 30 minutes prior to their round commencing to brief their witness

WITNESS EXAMINATIONPreparation & Procedure on the night

Procedure: • 90 minutes preparation – 30 minutes with your witness• When the judge enters – all stand, and only sit after the judge does so• The judge may ask for appearances – if so give them• The judge will read the charge against the accused and the

competition will begin• Prosecution Opening Address – 2 min • Examination in Chief – 10 min• Cross Examination by Defence – 15 mins• ‘The Prosecution Rests’• Defence Opening Address – 2 min• Examination in Chief by Defence – 10 min• Cross Examination by Prosecution – 15 min• ‘The Defence Rests’• Closing addresses by the defence and prosecution – each 3

min

Please Note: Do not discuss the contents of the trial materials with anyone other than your team-mate or witness on the night. If you receive any external help you will be disqualified.

READ THE RULES OF EVIDENCE RELATING TO EXAMINATION OF WITNESSES – Some questions, if they are irrelevant, vexatious or improper will not be allowed in the examination (or can be objected to)

PRACTICE YOUR APPEARANCES – there is nothing more confidence shaking than forgetting your own name – practice makes perfect

PRACTICE YOUR OPENING/CLOSING – if you and your team mate can decide in advance who will do what you can spend the week preparing some helpful general statements you can insert into your opening/closing address

WITNESS EXAMINATION Preparation Cont…

Teams of 2 or 3 (if you do have a teamof 3 only 2 people will speak on round nights)

We will be having 2 preliminary rounds, a quarter final, semi final and grand final

Only one problem question for the first preliminary rounds The second round is seeded on the basis of scores from the first

round and will be released on the night you compete Questions are released a week prior to the competition night Questions are released relating to the following areas of law:

Admin, Commercial, Constitutional, Contract, Corporate, Criminal, Equity, Property, Tort and Competition and Consumer Law

Jurisdiction will always be stated on the question – however if not presumed to be South Australian heard at the SCSA

OPEN MOOTRules

You must submit a written memoranda of argument for each round

Submitted by 4pm to the coordinator the day prior to the competition night

The Memo must contain: the major arguments raised; allocate speaking time; and a list of authorities relied upon

Memoranda must be no more than 3 pages in length with an additional one page of authorities

Each team has 30 minutes to present on the night (excluding appearances) and the time may be divided as you choose

Judges may grant extensions of 5 minutes of time, but will only do so in exceptional circumstances

OPEN MOOTRules cont.

READ THE CASES – Know the argument, know which judge you are citing and know if they are in the majority/minority or dissenting

CITE CLEARLY – if you do not have a copy of the AGLC. GET ONE. Know what has to be italicised etc. Use pinpoint references at all times.

PRACTICE YOUR APPEARANCES – there is nothing more confidence shaking than forgetting your own name – practice makes perfect

PRACTICE IN A CONVERSATIONAL STYLE – train as you play. A moot is a conversation, not a speech, so prepare as such.

OPEN MOOTPreparation

The purpose of written submissions is to save court time and to assist the Judge

Think about which court you will be addressing. Your approach in the High Court will be different to your approach in an intermediate Court.

Use IRAC: Issue, Rule Application and Conclusion. Make sensible concessions to limit issues. The judges will

appreciate you made the effort and will be well disposed to your reasonable and organised approach.

They should contain references to the evidence Set-out and arrange your submissions in a way that will

make them as comprehensible, and as persuasive, as possible. Use headings to guide the Court.

OPEN MOOTWritten Advocacy

WITNESS EXAMINATIONScoring Criteria

OPEN MOOTScoring Criteria

MOOT AND WITNESS EXAMINATIONProgression to Finals

Competitors will progress through to the Quarter Final based on the following procedure of ranking: • The eight competitors with the highest win-loss ratios

will automatically progress through.• If two or more competitors have tied win-loss ratios

they will be separated on the basis of: o Head-to-head; o then Margins;o then Points.

• The same procedure is used for the semi and grand finals

Guest Speakers

Useful Resources - Competitions Handbook

• The Competitions Handbook is an invaluable guide to all of the competitions run by your AULSS

• Contains vital hints, tips and some basic style guides for approaching problem questions and competition nights – it also has example problems and approaches

• If ever in doubt always check the handbook for information!

Questions?

If in doubt don’t ever hesitate to contact

Elizabeth, the Open Moot Coordinator at: elizabeth.carroll-shaw@student.adelaide.edu.au

Thomas, the Witness Examination Coordinator at:thomas.blokland@student.adelaide.edu.au

Or Ashleigh the Competitions Director at:compsdirector@aulss.org.au