[blindlaw] Oral Advocacy

[Russell J. Thomas, Jr]

As a Braille user, I can't imagine litigating without Braille. On the other
hand, for blind and sighted attorneys alike, relying exclusively on
technology is dangerous; what if the technology fails?

Remember, that no matter what medium you use, at the end of the day we are
advocates.  No your material well enough that you can argue to a court or
jury with minimal notes.  The worst thing any lawyer can do, blind or
sighted, is to read to a court or jury.  It sounds very boring, and usually
is.  If you know your material well enough you can put your advocacy skills
to their best use.  If I am arguing to a jury I have a few 3 by 5 cards with
a few words, just to cue me during my argument; the rest is pure advocacy.  


Respectfully,

 

Russell J. Thomas, Jr.

THOMAS & ASSOCIATES

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Beverly Hills, California 90210 

T: (310) 461-3561

-----Original Message-----
From: blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of ger sadlier
Sent: Tuesday, November 06, 2007 1:18 PM
To: blindlaw at nfbnet.org
Subject: Re: [blindlaw] Oral Advocacy

Hi,
   
  I did a moot last year.
  Like you i'm totelly blind.
  It may be unrealistic to expect you to be a master of braille by next
term, so I suggest you minimize the amount of material you have ritten down
in this medium.
   
  What you should do is memorize your argument.
   
  N.B. don't try to learn it off by heart. what you need to do is to
acquaint yourself thoroughly with all the facts and authorities.
  You should have the case names and citations written down infront of you
in braille (or if necessary on a talking technology) and should use these as
the points round which to build your argument.
   
  This sounds like a lot of work and i'm not going to tell you there isn't
effort involved.
   
  However, your sighted class mates (or at least the better of my sighted
class mates) i something ery similar so as to avoid having to read their
submissions entirely from a page in front of them.
   
  All the best with it.
  Gerard

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