Here is some advanced material about mooting mistakes that every mooter needs to guard against. This was originally published in Gyancentral.com back in 2012.

Pay attention to procedural issues

Everyone comes well prepared on the substantive legal issues – but most often speakers do not have understanding of basic procedural issues. Lack of such understanding can affect arguments majorly. For instance, in the final hearing of arguments in an arbitration proceedings a new witness cannot be brought in – and if the judge is suggested such a thing to the speaker he expects the speaker to be point out that it is too late to do such a thing (this year’s Willem C. Vis CISG arbitration moot problem had an issue like this).

Body language, voice and demeanour – train for these

This has a lot of importance during a moot – more than most speakers understand. We communicate a lot more through non-verbal cues apart from what we convey through words. Bad body language is sign of a bad lawyer. A good speaker consciously or unconsciously has a good body language to go with the oratory skills. Good eye contact, positive and alert body language, confident voice makes a huge difference – it makes a judge sit up and listen. Before you and after you, probably a judge will listen to half a dozen speakers. Maybe he goes to a lot of moot courts and has been listening to a lot of speakers – what will make him pay attention to you? Quality of your arguments will of any use only when he is listening to you with an open mind – he will appreciate the nuances of your subtle arguments only when he is actively listening – not just bearing with your speaking. We speak with our entire body – not just our tongue. Be more persuasive in your body language; use some cadence as you speak – something that is not too fast and easy to follow. Train for that as well.

In some moots, especially foreign moots, a huge importance is placed on demeanour and body language. You must not make excessive hand gestures, or make rude comments about your opponent’s arguments. It is difficult to resist the urge of trouncing your opponent’s arguments and ridicule them – but it’s unacceptable to most people and will almost certainly make you lose a court. Make your argument, believe and act as if you are a friend of the court, trying to help the judges reach a fair decision. Never lie; never exaggerate facts that may come across as lie.

When the other speaker in your team is speaking, do not make faces and gestures – it is distracting for the judge. Just sit quietly and don’t do anything that may attract attention.  Pay attention when the other party is speaking. Do not appear to be amused or disinterested no matter how badly they may be performing. I sometimes came across teams which will laugh at the arguments of the other team – the other judges on the bench almost always held it against their team.

In moots like Vis, judges even notice your team co-ordination and organization skills. It is very distracting to be flipping pages constantly or looking into books while you are arguing.

Practice Timing

It is not just about how good your arguments are – you need to be able to argue them within a given time. Keep your arguments brief and precise – and expound about nuances of law only when questions are asked. Craft a speech, and time it. You should know which argument can be argued in how much time without interruptions. As you argue, you should display an awareness of your allotted time. This is highly appreciated.

Misleading the court

I have seen many speakers win a court simply by misleading the judges. However, if a judge figures out that you have been intentionally lying about things or misleading them, that is pretty much end of the court. The worst thing to do, especially, is lying about facts – because this is very easy to catch. Even the other team pay skilfully point it out to the judges.

On the other hand, it is common for some mooters to mislead the judges with false precedents in support of their argument. They may even rubbish an argument brought up by you simply by making up lies about how a case was decided. You better have a strategy to deal with such a situation. This is one of the reasons as to why people often prefer to argue as respondent in advanced rounds.

When in pressure – slow down

A lot of speakers simply speed up when they are put under pressure. If they are asked difficult questions, or questions they do not have clear answers to – they start to speak very fast. Speaking slowly with adequate gap between words is very important – but it is even more important to appear calm when you are in trouble. Slow down – it will give you more time to think. You can even pause for a few seconds to think. You can even say to the bench that you would like to take a few seconds to gather your thoughts. This will allow you to come up with a cogent and structures answer to the questions asked rather than a hasty stream-of-consciousness response.

Don’t tie your future to a weak argument

This is a surprisingly common mistake. While structuring arguments be aware of the arguments which are inherently weak. There would be an issue or two on your side where you are on weak grounds. When giving out your roadmap to arguments, do not tie all of your arguments to your weak arguments or weak issues. Try to ensure that even if your weak issues fail and the judges reject those arguments, at least some of what you are arguing will still stand.

Check if you are being heard

Sometimes a passive bench will lose track of what you are saying and almost fall asleep. Check if they are following your arguments. Be loud enough to be heard. If you see that the judges have lost interest in your arguments – reclaim their attention by doing or saying something dramatic. Make sure to take the judges along with your story as you proceed through arguments. If the judges understand and listen to your arguments, that’s half the battle won.

Move from one argument to another

Not all arguments will fly with the bench. When you see the sign that the bench does not like one of your arguments – do not press it too much. Do not waste too much of your time – move quickly to stronger and more interesting arguments. This is crucial – without this you’ll be just committing hara-kiri in court after court. Finding the flow and sync between arguments is decisive which an online course like this can drastically improve. It is a skill set that is usually developed during a long course of experience, and online content designed by best mooters can significantly cut down the time and effort.

Practice summarizing your arguments

Chances are high that you’ll be interrupted in one or two issues so much that you’ll not be able to issue the other issues at all. That is fine – all is well. However, the judges are going to ask you to summarize the rest of your arguments. At this stage, please do not start making full length arguments. Keep your composure, maintain a calm, regular speed and just provide the headlines of your arguments in very brief – the whole thing should not take more than a minute. Please practice summarizing before you go for a moot – because you’ll probably have to do it multiple times anyway.

Use storytelling techniques

The best mooters are often great story tellers. Learn story telling techniques, like use of analogy, intrigue etc. in your mooting speech. This ability can be learnt, though is rarely actively learnt by anyone. However, this ability really separates the people who are already there from the people who are still trying to get better.