Does anyone have a general outline of an appellate oral argument? I have mine on Thursday and I was thinking there must be a general outline on how to do these things.

Thanks.

I don't see much utility in one. As soon as one of the judges asks you a question, any plan of attack may go to shit, especially with a hot bench. Mine was just a bunch of short phrases to jog my memory of my argument if the questions threw me off track and I wasn't able to re-group from memory. And besides, the better argument is one where you don't need to look down at all.

just make a 2 page bullet point outline of your argument. Have an opening road map for your argument. Say "your honor" frequently.

Also, avoid any synonym of "As I previously stated" and never, ever respond to a judge's question with "I will be getting to that later."

Oh and one good tip we got: don't use phrases like "I would argue that" or "Appellants believe" or "Appellants would argue..." Just say what your point without prefacing.

good stuff, thanks.

Intro
May it please the court. My name is ___________. And I represent the appellant/appellee __________. [I respectfully request one minute for rebuttal. - if appellant] [Catchy theme or policy sentence that weaves in critical facts of case – sentence or two – zinger.] Therefore, appellant/appellee respectfully requests that this court ___________ for [1,2,3] reasons. First, first reason. Second, second reason. Third, third reason. Turning to my first point:

Body
First point: Similar to point heading of your brief.
Rule (statutes, cases)
Case description (case name, court name, year decided, facts, holding, reasoning)
Your facts
Mini Conclusion

Second point: Copy above format

Third point: Copy above format

Conclusion
For the reasons above, ___________________. [Request relief again]

Rebuttal
May it please the court. I have [1,2] point(s) for rebuttal. The opposing counsel has stated _______. However, blah blah.


My outline followed that format. My bench was surprisingly cold. I didn't get questions until I got to my fourth point. It's always good to be prepared for that. I also included answers to possible questions they might have that I didn't necessarily want to discuss unless asked about.

My outline was pretty much the same. However I started to get questions during my theme and they continued pretty heavily throughout my 12 minutes. I only talked about my last point for 1 minute.

This. But, you'll probably enter an appearance before the arguments, so you can lose the my name is/I represent.

Oh also, some schools require you to state the facts or at least ask if the bench wants you to relay the facts. My professor didn't require that, so I didn't have that in mine.