Tips to help you pass Civil Advocacy first time!!

Tips for passing your Civil Advocacy Assessment first time

1. Create a timeline of events

You will need to know your cases facts back to front; this includes monetary figures, dates and names. In your assessment, the tutor playing the judge is allowed to interject and ask you questions so the more you know your case, the better!

2. Organise yourself

The best preparation for your assessment is to be extremely organised and this includes creating a checklist of undertakings you have to complete:

· Read all the facts

· Read and ensure you have understood instructions

· Timeline of events

· Draft a skeleton argument

· Draft a bundle cover (index and cases in submissions)

3. Draft your skeleton argument

Only draft submissions in your skeleton that you are relying on – do not write anything which doesn’t not support your case for the purpose of filling in space on the page. This will not only waste your advocacy time, but it will make the judge believe you are not prepared for the assessment.

i. Make your skeleton pleasing to the eye:

ii. Use headings/sub-headings

iii. Bolden and underline

iv. Add at least a 1.5 line spacing throughout

4. The advocacy

Do not read word for word from the skeleton you have prepared. This will be boring for the judge to watch and quite frankly, it doesn’t show off your great advocacy skills. To avoid doing this, practice the advocacy part lots and lots of times! You will find that you know the contents of your skeleton off by heart and this will allow you to use different words and phrases, whilst getting the points in your submission across.

Practicing will also have correct time allocation as to certain submissions. Anything you do not mention in the advocacy part will not be marked!

5. Be confident!

I always remind myself that as long as I look confident, anyone watching me will be confident in whatever it is I’m speaking about because naturally I will slowly feel confident too. Can you imagine watching someone nervous, stuttering and struggling to make eye contact speaking in front of you? You would feel uncomfortable watching them as opposed to watching someone confidently speaking… a confident speaker is a joy to watch!

So how can you look confident?

· Maintain eye contact

· Speak at an appropriate tone and voice

· Speak at reasonable speed – do not race through your submissions in the fear of time running out, ensure that what you are saying is understood and the judge can keep up!

· If asked a question, do not panic! Take time to make sure you answer this correctly. If you need a few seconds to answer this, tell the judge and they will give you the time you need. This is a much better approach than panicking and giving an excuse to not answer and or scrambling through your bundle in a fluster. Remember, at this point, you most likely know the answer and do not need any documents so just breathe, think and address the judge.

· Practice, practice, practice! Time yourself!

Good luck!

Sharon Shumbambiri

Follow me on Instagram: @SharonAtTheBar