Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1252904 in Books
• Published on: 1991-08-15
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 176 pages

Synopsis
The Technique of Persuasion provides a step-by-step guide to the skills of the advocate, taking the reader in a logical fashion from the preparation for trial itself to final speeches and pleas in mitigation. Written in a highly entertaining style, it is an absorbing primer on the strategy and tactics of advocacy. * Now in its fourth edition, this is one of the very few books which can truthfully claim to have genuine appeal to both solicitors and barristers at every level of experience * Advocacy is not merely something to be practised in a court of law, on one's feet, cross-examining witnesses or pesuading judges, almost all the work of a lawyer is a form of advocacy, all lawyers therefore can profitably read Sir David Napley's book

Customer Reviews

If they don't like you they will not like your opinions.
If they don't like you they will not like your opinions.

Sir David Napley was one of the famous solicitors of the last fifty years.

He grew to prominence inthe 70s and 80s as he was involved in high profile cases such as the Jeremy Thorpe ( the disgraced Liberal politician) trial you will learn was not actually a trial but a preliminary hearing in the magistrates courts. I went to see him in the 80s just to hear him lecture, it was worth it to see the great man

As a result of that and other cases the press started to focus on him although he was a solicitor and in theory and in practice didn't hold higher rights of audiences did not do high court advocacy as lawyers know most advocacy is done in the lower courts.

Also advocacy is a part of persuasion and persuasion is a lot more than advocacy.

It is a a form of negotiating technique.If you have to go to court in most civil matters then you have failed as the system encourages meditation and conciliation rather than full trials.

We have a lot of information on negotiating these days and it is more of a studied art .

The main lessons you can learn from this do is that prior preparation is the key to advocacy and also that if they do not like you they will not like your opinions.

Certain lawyers and others that I have come across think that by being rude to all and sundry somehow helps their client's case. the opposite is the case. If you go around alienating everyone there is less of a likelihood that the judge, jury and the other side will want to adopt your argument.

George Carman was an ace advocate and he would almost with regret suggest to the witness things weren't as he recalled. He would slowly insinuated himself and get the witness/ defendant to start agreeing with Carman's contention. It wasn't done by aggressive cross examination.

People can misunderstand that cross somehow means aggressive where as it should be a gradual process whereby you demolish the other side's argument by careful questioning so that you get the witness to accept as a possibility that your argument is correct. Once that has happened you are on your way.

He says you have to have an objective that is what are you trying to achieve. The court dramas that you see and read about all seem to come to a final reveal as though it was chance or an accident whereas it should be carefully prepared.

He splits the book down into Preparation for trial , the ethics of advocacy, the strategies and tactics of advocacy, presentation in court.

That is interesting in itself because most lawyers think that advocacy is just the presentation of the case in court but if it is not prepared properly then the court hearing will be a fiasco.

He sets out the importance of the letter before action. I see a few of those and they are hastily written with a view to impressing the client but rarely followed through or they contain a lot of incorrect information and false claims that cannot be substantiated. this make you case look weak.

Proofs of witnesses are important as you need to know exactly what you witness is going to say.

You should also look to reduce the charges once you have seen the opposition's case.

In the ethics for advocacy he says and it is right you should be helpful to the tribunal as they will view your case more sympathetically

The presentation of the case in court is the largest section and he goes through every aspect of it from the opening to the plea in mitigation and the guilty plea.

This book is a must for every lawyer and particularly every advocate and I am very surprised that it is not in print. I have written to Sweet and Maxwell to ask them their plans, if any to have it reprinted even if it is not brought up to date as Sir David Napley is no longer with us.

We don't seem to have such colourful solicitors around these days. the day of David Napley , Peter Carter Ruck , Arnold Goodman and Barristers like George Carman seem to be over. I think they are a lot more corporate these days and faceless.

A cracking read.