Oral Advocacy in Matters Argued before Superior Court Judges

• Author: Robert A. Blair
• Pages: 79-89

Oral

Advocacy

in

Matters

Argued

before

Superior

Court

Judges

Justice

Robert

A.

Blair*

The

following

is

attributed

to one

of

my

favourite

philosophers, Winnie

the

Pooh:

Pooh

was

puzzled. Actually,

he

wasn't

so

much puzzled

as he was

con-

fuzzled. Confuzzled

was

almost

the

longest word Pooh knew,

and he

hadn't known

that

until

Christopher Robin explained that

it

meant sort

of

mixed

up and

baffled.1

Good

advocates

do not

leave

the

judge

in a

state

of

confuzzlement.

Trial

Advocacy

Trial

advocacy,

the

nature

of a

trial,

and

Jell-o

This

is

true whether

the

judge

is a

trial

judge,

a

motions

or

applications

judge,

or an

appellate judge

(at

whatever

level).

Given

the

more open-

ended nature

of the

trial process, however

— as

opposed

to the

"closed-

record"

characteristic

of

other forums

of

advocacy

— the

task

of

counsel

Mr.

justice

Robert

A.

Blair,

Court

of

Appeal

for

Ontario.

i

R.E.

Allen,

Winnie-the-Pooh

on

Management:

In

Which

a

Very

Important

Bear

and His

Friends

are

Introduced

to a

Very

Important

Subject

(New

York:

E.P.

Dutton,

1994)

at

21.

79