Proof in Litigation (LAWS70178)

Proof in litigation is primarily designed as a subject for lawyers looking to improve their skills in analysing evidence as part of the process of preparing for adversarial litigation. The subject is taught in a hands-on workshop format and the final day is spent in the Moot Court, putting the preparation into practice.

This subject presents a systematic method for analysing and organising the factual information in a brief or file as part of a lawyer‘s preparation for trial. The method will be taught through its application to a hypothetical case file. While the focus is on trial preparation, application of the method to a matter is beneficial, whether or not the matter ultimately proceeds to trial.

Principal topics include:

• Introduction
• Preliminaries
• Chronologies
• Investigation
• Developing a case theory
• Proving the theory
• Arguing from and about evidence, including: witnesses and other sources of evidence, relevance and the drawing of inferences, negative and missing evidence, probative value and the standard of proof
• Analysing for admissibility
• Pulling it all together for trial.