Examples Of Trial Advocacy

Reforms of Trial Advocacy

Advocacy is one of the most ancient profession. To put broadly, Advocacy is the art of persuading others to one’s own point of view. The general level of competence of attorneys and more particularly their competence in specific aspects of the practice of law have been frequent and recurrent concerns. Indeed, as Judge Kaufman has pointed out, "insofar as bad lawyering is the product of bad character, or laziness, or apathy, there is little that can be done by way of education."

The most recent upsurge of concern was brought to wide public attention by Chief Justice Warren Burger in his Sonnett lecture at Fordham Law School in 1973, in which he singled out the problem of inadequate trial advocacy as the area needing

In its brief yet thorough style it covers the entire gamut of a trial. Each topic can be read separately to meet the particular demands of the moment. Examples enable the reader actually to use the material in court. Most of us enter court for the first time hoping only not to become a spectacle. With books like Trial Advocacy at hand we may even leave the courtroom with a victory. In 11 concise chapters, it discusses such frequent problems as examination of experts, introduction of various forms of evidence and ways of structuring arguments to a lay jury. Examples are used to demonstrate proper techniques. Because effective trial performance cannot be mastered solely through study, this volume should accompany practical

Specific course requirements might remedy some of the deficiencies of incompetent advocates such as inadequate knowledge or understanding of rules of evidence and/or procedure, but would not affect the deficiency of lack of preparation for trial. Trial advocacy courses would have a remedial effect on lack of preparation only to the extent that unpreparedness for trial is a result of not knowing how to prepare adequately. An empirical analysis of the Indiana rule concluded that the course requirements were not effective for promoting or ensuring competence, at least not in terms of bar examination results. Declining pass rates on the Indiana bar examination had led to the adoption of the rule. This is not to say that trial advocacy courses are not valuable but that their capacity to remedy this major deficiency of incompetent advocates is