The Art of the Advocate

Out of Print

Caught in the vice of tradition and precedent, advocates pursue their calling, and their prey, in a manner which has not basically changed for 200 years. Every day, in every court and tribunal, advocates (sometimes barristers, sometimes solicitors, sometimes, indeed, laypeople) represent us all - Crown and defendant, landlord and tenant, rich and poor, honest and false alike.

Yet, despite a wealth of anecdote about them, The Art of the Advocate is the first readily available account of what advocates really do and how they do it.

What are their duties to court and client and how do they affect the advocate's conduct? What sort of intelligence and what skills of presentation do they need? What gifts of language (if any) must they possess? What problems does the structure of examination, cross-examination and re-examination pose for a client's case?

Richard du Cann draws in his book on three main cases, so that the reader becomes familiar with the detailed problems of advocates at each stage of their work. And, to round off this fascinating study of function and technique in advocacy, he gives us a meticulous analysi of the presentation of the 'bottle on the shelf evidence in the Peasenhall case.