[blindLaw] preparing for oral argument

[Robert Munro]

There are a lot of moving parts to your question. But the technical aspect is the simplest, so I’ll address that first.

Break your motions down into a series of simple thoughts that can fit on one or two lines of a braille display, or that you can easily listen to if you’re using text to speech.

You want to be able to move through these thoughts easily, so make each New topic a heading and navigate through them by heading if you need to address points in your motion out of order. This can happen if you get a hot bench with a judge asking you a lot of questions.

You should also find out a lot about your Judge. Are they the type of person who reads the motion ahead of time and asks a lot of questions? has this judge heard your arguments from other attorneys and routinely rejected them, or has this judge routinely granted this type of motion.

Are you in a court of record where you need to speak as many of your points as possible for the record to preserve the issues?

Has anything new come up since you filed your motion, or would you feel comfortable simply standing up and saying quote I rely on my written motion.“

When you get right down to it, the basic question is whether the thing you are about to say will make it easier or harder for the judge to grant your motion. You should say as many things as possible that make it easy and as few things as possible that make it hard. Talk to other attorneys about how this judge’s mind works: do they have an engineers mind where numbers and rules count; or are they a people person where emotional issues can make a difference.

Let me know if anything I’ve said needs more elaboration, especially with the technical side. Otherwise good luck and give them hell.



Onward!

Rob

> On Sep 26, 2021, at 09:05, Laura Wolk via BlindLaw <blindlaw at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> All,
> 
> I will have my first arguments coming up soon on a couple of motions
> to dismiss.  Presumably they will both be on Zoom.  I would love to
> hear peoples tips and tricks about how to create notes and materials
> that I can easily reference during the argument, especially if you are
> a Braille reader.  Any assistance about how to navigate the argument
> itself would also be extremely appreciated (for instance, will the
> judge feel comfortable cutting me off if she knows I can't see her?
> How should I keep track of time?)  Etc.  Happy to chat offline as
> well.
> 
> Thanks,
> Laura
> 
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