top 10 tips i wish i knew before i
became a barrister and these can help
you in any area of life not just if
you're going into the legal profession
number one is no opinions and no
emotions that's right no one really
cares about your opinion and no one
really cares about your emotions unless
of course your emotions are relevant to
the case for example if you're using
self-defense because you feared
immediate harm or you're the victim of a
crime and your emotions are relevant for
the victim impact statement but in
general for winning an argument your
opinions and your emotions are not going
to help you likewise your opinion unless
yours is an expert one then it's not
going to speak to the evidence so you
need to look to the evidence to support
your arguments and that brings me on to
the evidence because number two is
evidence is everything if you want to
say that a certain thing happened at a
certain time or a certain place or in a
certain way you need to have the
evidence to show for this that might
just be in the form of a witness
statement either from yourself or from
somebody else or it might be in the form
of documentary evidence or cctv or a
recording or some other kind of email or
any other kind of evidence that you can
bring forth to show that the facts that
you are stating are true evidence is
everything however true your point might
be if someone else has evidence to show
that their point is true they are more
likely to win their point over yours and
continuing on the train of evidence
number three is dates and times are
everything if you can show when
something happened on a specific date at
a specific time and you have a
chronology of each of these events
exactly when they happened it is going
to be much more persuasive when winning
your argument for example saying that
something happened sometime during
september is much less persuasive than
saying that it happened on the 15th of
september at 3 20 p.m in the afternoon
just by virtue of the fact that you have
the precise date and time shows that
this is going to be more persuasive
number four is know the rules for most
arguments and most points particularly
in the field of law but in most areas of
life there are sets of rules there might
be guidance and there may well be laws
knowing these rules law guidance
regulations whatever they might be if
you know what they are you can formulate
your argument around those sets of rules
if you think about a particular crime
there are going to be elements of the
offence and you can bet that the
prosecutor will know each of the
elements of the offence and they will
set out to prove each one of those and
when taken together they will be
successful in prosecuting that offence
likewise if you are bringing a civil
claim and there are various rules to
follow that you need in order to prove
your claim and to follow the correct
procedure whilst going through court you
need to know the rules if you don't know
the rules you need to go to someone else
to find out what those rules are if you
have no idea about tax you wouldn't try
to do your tax yourself you would go to
an accountant or a tax specialist if you
know nothing about law you need to come
to a lawyer to get legal advice on the
rules and the law so that you can better
present your case so number four is know
the rules and all of that taken together
brings me neatly on to number five which
is always seek advice
as i said whether that is with an
accountant whether it's with a lawyer or
anyone else that specializes in the area
that you need to win a certain argument
make a certain point you are always
advised to go and seek formal advice
even i would go to another lawyer that
specializes in an area if i didn't
understand it fully so that i could rely
on that advice to better present my case
so always seek advice there is no shame
in asking someone for help if it's going
to help you win your argument speaking
of making your arguments number six is
always think before you speak this has a
number of advantages first of all
thinking allows you the time to
formulate what you're about to say many
people think that they must immediately
fill a silence or a pause with words and
comments this is only going to be
detrimental if you haven't thought about
what you're going to say first even if
what you say is going to be persuasive
and a well-formulated argument it's not
going to come out of your mouth unless
you've given your brain time to think
about how to formulate what you are
about to say the more you do this the
easier it becomes this is why television
presenters are so good at speaking and
coming up with things on the spot
because they've trained their brain to
formulate what they're going to say
before they say it and that connection
between brain and mouth becomes a lot
faster but for most people in most
circumstances take the time to think
about what you are going to say this is
particularly relevant if you are
speaking to the police about something
because if you in effect say the wrong
thing and by which i mean you say
something that doesn't really reflect
what your intentions were at the time it
could be misconstrued and it could land
you in trouble for something that you
didn't really do a typical example of
this might be if you are carrying
something that you have used in
self-defense if you were to say that you
were carrying it because you know that
you can use it in self-defense but that
wasn't what you really meant and you
didn't normally carry it for
self-defense it may be construed that
you were carrying this thing as an
offensive weapon which is going to make
your defense of self-defense less
credible less reliable and you are more
likely to going to be culpable for any
damage and harm that you've done to any
other person or any other property
however if you were to rely on these
tips that i'm giving you now and you
were to have sought advice and the
lawyer to ask you questions did you
really carry this what was the purpose
for carrying this in the first place and
you said no reason i just had it in my
pocket then obviously you can rely on
the advice think before you speak and
you wouldn't say something that wasn't
necessarily true which is otherwise
going to land you in trouble so again
always think before you speak and one
way of helping this is going to be
number seven which is break everything
into individual sections if you get one
huge argument you are not going to win
it in one response you can break it down
into various constituent elements and if
taken together you can prove each of
these elements you may well win the
overall argument but you're only going
to do this effectively when you break it
down again using crimes as the example
most crimes if not all crimes have
elements of an offence that can be
broken down and separated into
individual factors the prosecutor will
seek to prove each element of the
offense in subtly different ways woven
into the story and their line of
questioning but when taken together the
prosecutor can show that each necessary
element of the offence has been proven
and shown backed up with evidence as
i've warned in these tips and then when
taken together the overall prosecution
will be successful because they've
broken it down into relevant elements
that they can individually prove number
eight is be kind to everybody you meet
it doesn't matter if you like this
person i'm not saying be disingenuous
i'm just saying be kind and be a nice
person
you never know who it is that you might
meet how they might help you or worse
how they may harm you if you do
something wrong
i've certainly fallen out with people in
the past if i were to meet them today i
would be kind to them i wouldn't hold
grudges because the way you act will
reflect on you and on your argument
particularly if you are speaking on
behalf of someone else as an advocate if
you come across as aggressive this will
reflect on your client or the person
that you are representing number nine is
quite simple never get into an agreement
where it's going to cost you money or
perhaps incur liability without getting
it in writing and always including all
of the details and remembering tip
number five and last but not least
number 10 is always show respect even
when you disagree with what someone else
says you can disagree with it in a
polite and respectful way by putting
your arguments first by supporting it
with evidence and utilizing all of the
tips that i've given you here in you can
still do that by being respectful this
makes you look far more credible even if
there is a chance that your argument is
not going to win this is going to help
because you will come across as a
respectable person and that in itself is
going to make your arguments more
credible so i hope you found these tips
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