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Foreword

Document Cited authorities 1 Cited in Related
Vincent
AuthorPeter Lyons
Pages5-6
Foreword

I keep close at hand a cathartic collection of examples of appalling advocacy. After a bad day in court, it is reassuring to be reminded that it could have been so much worse.

When licking my professional wounds, I like to recall that in the United States Supreme Court in 1972, the assistant prosecutor from Louisville, Kentucky was asked in oral argument by Justice Douglas why his argument was so perfunctory. ‘Your Honor must realise’, the advocate replied, ‘I am a very busy man’.1In 1981, a court in Tennessee told an advocate during his submissions, ‘we shall have no more of this’, and issued an injunction to restrain him from bringing any similar cases in the future.2In 2005, at Harrow Crown Court, Judge Sanders asked the unfortunate counsel for the Crown in a criminal case how long he had been a barrister. When counsel replied ‘long enough’, the judge responded, ‘but everything you say is utter rubbish’.3

Much more difficult is to find a guide to good advocacy. That is surprising since advocacy – communication with others to persuade them – is vital, not just to the effective presentation of legal argument, but to all aspects of our lives. ‘Can I have an ice cream?’. ‘I wish to apply for the job vacancy’. ‘Will you marry me?’.

The essential principles of court and tribunal advocacy are, when analysed by a master such as Peter Lyons, surprisingly simple: brevity, clarity, courtesy, integrity and a focus on offering a solution to the problem posed.

Every advocate should bear in mind the advice (quoted by Professor Lyons) from Justice John I Laskin of the Court of Appeal for Ontario: busy judges ‘want answers to two questions: can you help us and how fast?’4

Persuading a court does not mean having an argument with the judge (or...

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