Introduction to Trial Advocacy: How Canadian lawyers prepare for and conduct civil cases

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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.