Interpreting your moot problem

• Read through the problem carefully

• Make a note of the facts of the case and a timeline of the facts to get this clear in your head in relation to your point of appeal (remember there will be 2 points of appeal argued)
  

• Remember the facts are not in dispute and so you can not argue against them

• Some facts may seem trivial to start with but will play a crucial part in the argument

     Researching the law

• Get the background to the legal topic (see Research tab for help)

• Evaluating the information

• Finding legal authorities

    Relating the law to the facts

After researching the legal topic and getting an understanding of the law in the area go back to your moot problem and relate the law to the facts you have established.  In a moot it is important to get the balance right between citing the law and discussing it in relation to the facts in your case.

    Using legal authorities

a) Citing the correct authorities

When arguing you need to use relevant authorities to support it.  This means primary legal sources i.e cases and legislation.  Secondary sources such as books and articles are usually not be cited as support for your argument.

b) Always remember which court you are in and what cases are binding

If you are in the Court of Appeal, judgments made in the House of Lords/Supreme Court are binding on you and so you can not ask for the court to overrule them or argue that they were incorrectly made.  You will need to distinguish your case on the facts.  Likewise you can not ask the court to be bound by a decision made in a lower court you must establish why the decision is a sound legal precedent and why it should be upheld.

    Format

       You need to think about the structure of your argument and this has be logical and clear.

Some people find it useful to write out word for word what they are going to say to help them practice. It is a good idea to take in shorter notes or cards rather than the whole of your speech as it may be difficult to keep eye contact with the judge and keep your place.

       Skeleton argument

This must be a short and structured list of what you are going to argue.  It should include enough information to help the judge determine the structure and content of your argument but not go into too much detail.  It should also signpost which authorities you are going to use to establish each point.  At the top of the skeleton argument you must include the Parties names of the case, the date of the case, the court and whether you are acting as lead or junior for respondent or appellant.  For an example see the left hand column.  As a guide the whole argument should not be more than an A4 sheet in a decent size font.  A lot of competitions will give guidance on what the format should be.

List of Authorities

The list of authorities should be a list with full citations of the legislation and the cases you are going to use to support your argument.  Legislation should come at the top of the list, followed by cases.  Legislation should not be abbreviated and should include section and sub-section numbers.  Cases should be in italics or underlined and have the neutral citation (if it has one) and then the report citation (see citation tab for details).  If the case does not have a neutral citation then you should put the court abbreviation in brackets at the end.  As with the skeleton argument there needs to be the case details at the top of the list.  See the example in the left hand column.

• Use a good folder that is easy to open.  You don't want a judge to have to handle paper that can fly everywhere

• Use a clear copy of the authorities.  Only use an electronic source if there is a pdf version of the case report as this has easy text to read

• Have very clear tabbing.  You do not want to just have a big pile of pages and the judge to waste your time trying to get to the right section.

• Remember to put numbers on the tabs and put these in your notes so that they can go directly to them

• If highlighting is allowed then highlight the section you are going to quote so that the judge doesn't have to read the whole page and you do not have to remember and quote paragraphs numbers