Publisher's Synopsis
Professional skills are now central to the training of both solicitors and barristers. This book offers practical help. It explains how a practising lawyer should approach advising a client, how to prepare a case and draft particular documents. The relevant skills are put very firmly into a legal context abd appropriate statutory rules, rules of court and case law are included in every area.;In this fifth edition the recent shift in approach to the preparation and presentation of cases is reflected. Increasingly the issues in a case are clarified through the use of pre-trial hearings and skeleton arguments, which require even more refined skills of analysis and clear and concise presentation.;The main chapters in this book deal with the lawyer as a professional adviser; the first interview with the client and advising in conference; the brief to counsel and the opinion; investigating and preparing a case; basic principles of drafting and pleading; the drafting of statements of claim and other pleadings; drafting in civil appeals and advising and drafting in criminal cases. The final section of the book goes on to give a number of more specific examples of the most important types of draft for areas such as contract, tort and trusts.