Influencing the Judicial Mind; Effective Written Advocacy in Practice

While the requirement to produces skeleton arguments has been with us for 10 years, written advocacy remains in its infancy. The present generation of practitioners were not taught the skills needed for written argument. Yet judges at all levels of tribunal concede that cases are often decided in principle before oral argument on the strenght of written advocacy. Throughout the civil justice under the CPR the skill is vital both inside and out of court - cases are being won or lost on the advocate's skill in writing, not addressing the court orally. The penalty costs regime under the CPR requires all practitioners to use adversarial skill in pre-action correspondence and Part 36 offers. In this ground breaking work, Andrew Goodman uses worked examples from real cases provided by leading barristers and solicitors, and discusses the results of extensive interviews with judges, Queen's Counsel and outstandingly succesful juniours to establish how to succeed in written argument.