Ivy understands the importance of drafting documents to a court. Drafting documents to a court is unique in that the judge is ultimately the audience, and the thoroughness of your research and effectiveness of your
advocacy in writing may be enough to sway the judge in your favor. Writing for the court is a critical skill for a paralegal, which brings together everything in your legal writing arsenal: research; grammar; proper citations;
clean/concise writing; and advocacy skills.
Ivy wants you and the other paralegals to practice drafting to a court, and compare and discuss your practice
work.
Ivy asks the team to first review Drafting a Brief to a Court provided at the following link:
http://www.law.cuny.edu/legal-writing/students/court-brief.html
Instructions:
After reviewing Drafting a Brief to a Court, click on the link in the left menu, Case Study: Two Versions of a Trial
Brief (in blue at the bottom of the list on the left side of the page).
Review the First Draft and Final Draft versions of the trial brief.
Choose one First Draft paragraph and choose one Final Draft paragraph (the same paragraph in both versions,
revised in the Final Draft).
Evaluate and briefly discuss which paragraph is more effective in making the argument more persuasive and why.
Sample Solution