Closing Argument
For your Hollywood finish
This is it. You're at the home stretch. One more speech stands between you and immortalization as this generation's Johnnie Cochran. How would you get your team across the finishing line?
It's important to remember what the Closing is for. During the trial, the jury has heard testimony, saw evidence, and watched witnesses' beaming smile or squirming embarrassment, but all of it is disparate. As much as you had a unifying theory, it was delivered in bits and pieces, one witness at a time. Now is time to tie the whole trial together, reiterate your theory, but now with the full force of truth (or an approximation thereof), bearing down on your learned friends on opposing counsel table.
In order to succeed, you need to keep three things in mind.
Going in with the same mindset as an Opening, with a fully rehearsed, static script will never work. Too much can change in a trial, and you won't know what you've won or lost until you go through it. Remember, a Closing reflects the trial, not a trial you thought you would have had. A good Closing speaker incorporates every win from the trial. You got a witness impeached? That's going in the Closing. A witness admitted something your theory needed them to? Going in the Closing. A piece of controversial evidence ends up being admitted (because you read the Objections page)? Closing.
By the same token, a good Closing acknowledges, but does not let overshadow, losses in the trial. If testimony beneficial from your side is stricken, or witnesses impeached, or evidence deemed inadmissible, the Closing should mitigate the loss by demonstrating that the theory had other legs to stand on.
As much fun as you think you'll be having, knowing you can shrug off any responsibility, while your Opening counterpart is diligently hammering their keyboard, crafting the masterful speech, just by pointing to the first segment of this guide, you won't be. A Closing is just as disciplined and planned as any other speech. While you incorporate elements from the trial, what the elements work to accomplish should be long evident for you: The theory of the case.
A good way to structure the argument is by the elements of the charges. As the Crown or Plaintiff, you'll want to walk the jury though the inevitability of guilt/liability, as you explain you've passed each and every element, through legal conclusions synthesized from the trial. As a Plaintiff, a Closing may follow like:
Your Honour, in order to prove our case, we must surpass, on a balance of probabilities, all four elements of negligence. First - that the defendant had a duty of care to the plaintiff. The defendant, as they have testified, are the constructing company of the plaintiff's residence. Of course they owe a duty of care. Second - that the defendant breached the duty of care. The defendant, as one of their contractors have testified, failed to identify poisonous waste on their property and built on it anyway. The duty has been breached. Third - that the defendant was negligent in causing the breach. As the defendant's CEO has admitted to on cross examination, he knew the area to be a deindustrialized brownfield site, he knew there to have been waste in the proximity of his property, yet, to save money, he did not order a search to completely clear the site. The defendant was negligent. Fourth - that the breach caused harm. As our doctor testified, the poisonous gas is known to cause heart disease in infants, the exact same sort that the plaintiff now exhibits, having lived in the apartment.
Thus, we meet all requirements, and ask you return a verdict of liable.
Of course, a Closing like that, though efficient, would be incredibly boring and dry. That's why:
As much as I personally would like the law to just be a series of legal arguments, I recognize that that's not all it is. The Closing, just like the Opening, is telling a story. The theory should permeate throughout, but now enforced by the evidence that has surfaced throughout the trial. A good Closing echoes the Opening - they'll be on the same theme, and exploring the same narrative, be it Greed, or Desperation, or Honesty. The Closing arguments serve to emphatically confirm the theory, and urge action based on it.
That's it! That's all the steps to Mock Trial. Now if only you're ready for mooting too.
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