Amish Aggarwala@AmishAggarwala
One rookie mistake I used to make very early in practice was to not think about how to compress the entire narration of the story of my client, his grievance or his defence, in a few short lines.
Because that is all that the judge is going to allow you on most days.
A few short lines.
If the most important aspects of the case don't come out, often the judge will lose attention, or worse, detract you from your arguments and take you to some other part of your brief.
The judge is not bad.
He is dealing with 50 to 100 cases every day.
If you do not speak the language of the court, if your starting words do not sound familiar to the judge, you drastically lower your chances of success.
To illustrate:
Recently a young lawyer I know, made the following submissions before the Delhi High Court:
"My Lord, I have filed the present bail application under Section 439 of the Criminal Procedure Code. Petitioner was arrested on -.-.2023. The Sessions Court dismissed the bail application on -.-.2023........"
Thankfully for the lawyer, the Hon’ble Judge was kind, interrupted him, and passed order issuing notice.
After the hearing, as practice for future hearings, I helped him re-formulate the submission to the most crucial aspects, that too in language familiar to the Court.
"My Lord, I am seeking regular bail. I'm in custody since _ days. All the co-accused are now out on bail, even those who had a more severe role than me."
Once you get a strong start, the court will give you more time to argue. And will be more inclined to grant you relief.
I must admit, though I have improved, I still struggle with this challenge daily myself, despite running around in courts for the past 10 years.
But I keep trying to work on my advocacy skills, and to get better bit by bit.
