3 Great Sites to Help You Present Oral Argument

Tips on Oral Advocacy – Duke Law

These are Tips prepared to assist Duke Law students in making their presentation to a Moot Court Judge.  (A “Moot Court” is a practice court session, usually with a real judge or lawyer hearing argument from students and then giving them feedback.  These are serious sessions.)  The Tips here apply in real court.

Preparing and Presenting The Oral Argument – The Evergreen State Collage Evergreen Supreme Court Appellate Advocacy Project.

This was a project of the late Jose Gomez, J.D., at The Evergreen State College, a liberal arts undergraduate institution in Olympia, Washington.  It’s also for a Moot Court presentation, but has good Tips for self-reps appearing in front of a judge in their family law case.

Judge’s Score Sheet – Simon Fraser University

This is a Judges Score Sheet for a debating program at Simon Fraser University.  It’s a terrific way for you to look at your oral presentation and see how it will be recieved by a judge.  When you’re in court, it’s not like being on a debating team in university.  But the same key factors apply.  No judge in court is actually keeping a score card on the presentations.  But each judge is looking at you and listening to your oral presentation and the factors listed in this score card are absolutely in his or her mind.  The better your practice oral argument scores on this test, the more impact it will have on the judge.