1. Ashurst Trial Advocacy Seminar Advanced skills
Aoning Li – Solicitor
Carmen Grobbelaar – Competitions VP
Trial advocacy seminar

2. Trial advocacy seminar
Outline of seminar
Throughout, we will be workshopping the sample question:
State of Western Australia v Moore
As an advanced seminar, there is some assumed knowledge
Focus of the majority of the seminar will be working through the preparation and presentation of the question as if you were competing with it
Trial advocacy seminar

3. Trial advocacy seminar
Assumed knowledge
Competition basics and procedure
Trial advocacy basics
Court etiquette
Objection basics
As well as a read-through of WA v Moore
Trial advocacy seminar

4. Trial advocacy seminar
Preparing WA v Moore
Read through
How do you approach preparation?
Read through x2 x3
Case theory
Closing
Opening
Cross
Chief
Trial advocacy seminar

5. Trial advocacy seminar
Case theory
Two types of case theory
Broad case theory
Can you explain the case in 2 or 3 lines?
Detailed case theory
Can you explain every single bit of the evidence and how to relates to your case?
Literally every single bit of evidence
Preparing the above is why the question needs to be repeatedly read through
Trial advocacy seminar

6. Trial advocacy seminar
Closing statement
Prepare the closing first – few exceptions to this
Closing should be nothing like an opening
Go straight into the factual discussions – no point repeating anything that was said in the opening
Explain why
Talk about the evidence generally – and what inferences the court should draw from the evidence
Trial advocacy seminar

7. Trial advocacy seminar
Opening statement
Easier to prepare once you know what the closing statement looks like
Your opening should answer the question “what is this trial about?” without saying anything that the other side would disagree with
It is important that nothing said is controversial in terms of what might be a disputed issue
Set out the law and anything else so that the closing statement is “clean” in terms of discussing the issues
Trial advocacy seminar

8. Trial advocacy seminar
Cross examination
Cross examination needs to be consistent with the case theory
This seems obvious but seems to be rarely done effectively
Important to both criticise the evidence that hurts your case, but also to highlight the evidence that supports your case
Again, the latter is rarely done as part of a complete cross examination presentation
Remember Browne v Dunn if applicable as defence counsel
Advanced skills – “closing the pen” on a line of questioning
Trial advocacy seminar

9. Trial advocacy seminar
Examination in chief
I generally advocate learning to do this “on the fly” rather than scripted preparation
What is important is to be following the witness statement as the evidence is being given – which makes it hard to triple-task by listening, following the script AND following the statement at the same time.
Advanced skill – pacing the questions so that the important bits of evidence are highlighted with a slower pace
Time constraints means that this is the part that should be prepared last if at all.
Trial advocacy seminar

10. Trial advocacy seminar
Questions?
Questions, queries
Trial advocacy seminar

11. Contacts Carmen Grobbelaar Competitions Vice President cvp@msls.asn.au
Week 1 - Introduction to Social and Welfare Law