Bøger i Advocacy Club Books serien

How do law students - or junior lawyers, for that matter - learn how to get things done in a courtroom? Certainly not by listening to the war stories told by accomplished litigators. This handbook offers a practical solution, and an experiential one. Advocacy can be taught, and this handbook takes on that task.Readers are led through all the steps of the civil litigation process that require oral advocacy, starting with the initial client interview. Civil litigators must learn the facts - all the facts. Then they have to analyze them. This handbook takes case analysis very seriously. If the reader learns nothing else from these pages, the techniques of case analysis will stand out as a major value.Case analysis informs all of the advocacy decisions and tactics that guide the litigator to a successful outcome. Even if taking the last offer is that outcome. Without proper analysis, how can the litigator create and implement an examination strategy?Students who "learn" case analysis by reading court decisions fail to grasp what trial lawyers know. Before the witnesses testify and the judge decides, the lawyers do not know what the "facts" are. Or how the judge will spin them to the ultimate conclusion. This handbook is written to arm the reader to analyze and strategize from the known facts. And to recognize the risks and to mitigate them as best as possible.The handbook presents the techniques to outline examinations, whether for discovery/depositions, direct (chief) or cross. Often, success depends on preparation. Preparation in gathering the facts, marshalling them and ordering them into an outline. A litigator who wings it is rarely acting professionally.The handbook then presents the techniques to conduct those examinations. The formula for a successful examination is part of the holistic structure that marries case analysis and fact gathering to telling the story persuasively.A major plus in these pages is the use of the example. The chapters refer to a simple legal case study, and then demonstrates the techniques using the characters and facts of that case.The handbook was written for Canadian lawyers and law students, but the lessons are applicable in all common law jurisdictions. Witnesses and judges are similar everywhere.So, from initial interview to final argument, this handbook informs the reader about the art of civil advocacy.

Outlining an examination is no different than preparing to write a book. Both exercises start with the relevant material - facts, arguments, stories. Then both break the material into suitable components - chapters, if you will. Each chapter consists of sub-chapters, and so on. But ultimately, the success of an examination or book depends upon the identification and nailing of the points needed to persuade, amuse, or inform. This requires that the outliner adopt a theme, complete with evocative words and phrases that make all those points into weapons.This handbook is a stand-alone DIY presentation of the techniques lawyers need to create and implement a successful outline. It works for discovery and deposition. It works for direct (chief). And it really works for cross-examinations. Any successful trial lawyer will point to all the preparation that goes into the winning cross. The outline is where that preparation finds its home.-What points will you make? -How will you introduce them? -How will you organize them? -What could go wrong? -What happens then? This handbook identifies the steps that lawyers use to convert the jumbled mass of "stuff" on their desks into a persuasive examination outline. From blank page to winning verdict.While it stands on its own, this handbook works on the same principles as and serves as a companion to Introduction to Trial Advocacy, the first in the Advocacy Club Series of handbooks. As with the other handbooks in the Series, a legal case study guides the reader through the process - with tips, techniques, templates and examples.Although written for Canadian lawyers and students, the principles are universal. They apply as much to legal writing and argument as they do to outlining examinations for civil litigation. Of course, the handbook was itself written using an outline. One that used the same techniques as are presented here.Preparation for trial is difficult enough, fraught with time shortages, gaps in the evidence, fear of the unknown. This handbook helps the lawyer to overcome some of the obstacles - to convert risk into opportunity, enemies into supportive allies.

Why is estate litigation different from other areas of court cases? Like family law, the parties usually know each other. Also like family law, emotions and memories play important - often dominant roles. Unlike family law, the parties are usually dealing with OPM - other people's money. Estate law is an off-shoot of the law of equity. Estate cases deal with trusts, either expressed or implied by law.Guardianships, powers of attorney, trustees, executors, all these situations involve people who act or are deemed to act on behalf of others. This creates conflicts of interest, self-dealing in place of integrity, suspicious circumstances.The law that governs these situations arises from before the times of Charles Dickens and Bleak House. The court practice tends to depart from the typical rules of civil procedure that govern torts and contract cases. Why? Because the parties are different than the courts encounter in typical civil cases.This handbook starts with a discussion of the practical differences between civil and estate litigation. Using a case study that arises all too often, the reader is guided through the stages of estate litigation. As with the other handbooks in the Advocacy Club Series, there are examples and practical techniques designed to show the civil litigator the best practices of the estates litigator.Although written for Canadian lawyers and using Canadian case law as examples, this handbook presents practical techniques that apply to lawyers in all common law jurisdictions.