HOW TO MOOT AND COURT-ROOM ETIQUETTE

What follows in these pages comes from my personal experience as a teacher of Moot Court, Mock Trials and Internship. I am sharing the same in the hope that students would benefit.

ADDRESSING THE COURT

• Be professional, polite, respectful, appropriately dressed.
• Know-it-all and overbearing attitude does not take you places; humility, on the other hand, strikes a chord with the judges.
• It is a fallacy that good debaters or orators are good at mooting. NO. They are good at arguing and one-upmanship-which are fatal to mooting. Over the years, I have seen debaters turn aggressive in their language and attitude to prove their side of the argument. This is not the right court-room attitude.

Presenting Your Submission

A. COMMUNICATION: Bear in mind that mooting is an exercise in personality development and communication.

Speak slowly and carefully. YOU SHOULD BE AUDIBLE, WHATEVER THE LANGUAGE. Do not speak to yourself. Try to engage the court by modulating the tone of your voice; court would reciprocate --it would be interested in hearing you out fully. At the same time, do pause to observe if the judges are interested and listening to you in the first place. Do not just rant away.

It is a legal issue that has been given as a moot problem to you. Remember your IRAC and kindly present a logical submission on facts and law. Emotional appeals, feelings, opinions etc usually have no place in mooting.

B. LANGUAGE TO BE USED: You may begin your submission with the following statement: 'May it please the Court, my name is ________ and I appear on behalf of ______. My submission will address…'

Conclude with one of the following statements: 'That concludes my submission. May I be of any further assistance to the Court?' OR

'Unless the Court has any further questions, that concludes my submission'.

Some OTHER useful phrases that may come in handy are-

1. ‘In my submission, I will show that____________’ AND NOT ‘...I will argue that… (CONTRARY TO POPULAR NOTION, YOU ARE NOT THERE TO ARGUE THE MATTER, YOU ARE THERE JUST TO PRESENT YOUR SUBMISSIONS). Having said that, NEVER ARGUE WITH THE JUDGE. NEVER.

At the same time, it is equally important to say that if you are confident, stick to your stand and be assertive about it, without being aggressive. Just because the judge has decided to ask a question on a certain matter, should not make you buckle down and shift your stand.

2. ‘In my respectful submission ‘the court should consider____________’ AND NOT ‘the court must consider________.’

3. When asked a question, answer ‘yes’ or ‘no’ and then explain your answer. LEARN TO ANSWER THE QUESTION ASKED. Beating about the bush does not work. It is a good idea to pause (briefly) before answering a question posed by the judge, instead of blurting out whatever comes to your mind.

4. If you are unclear or uncertain about a question put by the court, some of the following phrases may be useful: 'I would be obliged if the Court would clarify the question.'(HOWEVER, NEVER USE THIS AS A TRICK TO BUY TIME—IT BACKFIRES)

OR YOU MAY SAY--

'I’m afraid I don’t understand the court’s point.

OR

'I accept the court’s point, however, it is my submission that…' [or] 'I would submit that…'

5. If you do not know the answer, kindly do not try to play bluff-master with the court. They will call your bluff and you lose credibility as a mooter. Instead, admit that you do not know and proceed.

6. Avoid phrases like 'I think'. 'I believe', 'I feel'. A simple ‘I submit’ would suffice.

7. In case you want to pinpoint something to the court, you may state it thus: 'May I bring the courts attention to paragraph ___.

8. Always ask the court whether it is aware of the facts of the case. Two simple ways of doing it are:

# 'Is the court familiar with the case of... ?'
# 'Would the court like me to state the facts of the case?'

Usually this is allowed to be skipped by the judge. Nonetheless, be prepared to give a rough outline if the court is unfamiliar with it.

9. Present your case – do not simply read your speech. An occasional reference here and there to the written memorial is not a problem. Presenting it as a news-reader is.

10. Keep a control over your hand gestures and movements. Limbs flailing here and there has to be avoided. Likewise, hands in pockets is a NO.

11. Expressions such as ‘Of course your honour’, ‘Yeah, that is what I meant’ have to be avoided at all costs.

C. SIMPLE MANNERS WORK WONDERS: The judge is not your pal. Try not to treat him/her like one!

Follow these:

1. Listen to the judge. Do not pretend that you are listening. ACTUALLY listen and try and make sense of what s/he is pointing at. Never interrupt a judge. If a judge interrupts you, what should you do?

• Roll your eyes in exasperation
• Show sass and attitude in your body language
• Go blank
• Mutter under your breath

The above may seem like computer-ji options of KBC but believe it or not, they are often the responses of some students. All are wrong and no-one can win a crore by using them.

What to do then—The right response is not that difficult, only if you practice it. The answer is, you should stop speaking (even if it is a middle of a sentence), and listen carefully to the judge’s question or comment. Then answer the same politely.

2. JUDGE WOULD QUESTION: Do not show signs of exasperation if the judge questions you. That is his job. He is not there to nod in agreement to whatever you state.

3. YES, it is a simulation exercise and you know that it is your teacher and not some actual judge in front of you. This should not, however, prevent you from displaying all your impeccable manners to that fake court. Mooting is a performing art which can be perfected through practice.

Practice away then.

Good Luck.