Judgment Writing
This seminar is designed to assist judges in improving their judgment-writing skills. The program includes lectures, discussions, and workshops that stress the nature of good prose, point-first writing and the special requirements and special challenges of judicial writing. Since the art of writing is a skill that, like all skills, can be improved only through practice, much of the instruction will center on written exercises and judgments.
Number of Participants: 56
Overview
This seminar is designed to assist judges in improving their judgment-writing skills. The program includes lectures, discussions, and workshops that stress the nature of good prose, point-first writing and the special requirements and special challenges of judicial writing. Since the art of writing is a skill that, like all skills, can be improved only through practice, much of the instruction centers on written exercises and judgments.
Each judge is assigned a duo of trainers: an instructor and a judge, who reads and comments a sample of the judge’s writing prior to the seminar and supervises the seminar discussions and workshops. The academic faculty members, most associated with major Canadian universities, have been chosen for their writing abilities as well as for their experience in teaching legal writing.
Objectives
This program is designed to assist judges in improving their judgment-writing skills. It includes lectures, discussions, and workshops on the nature of good prose, gender-neutral language and the special requirements and problems of judicial writing. Since writing is a skill that can be improved only through practice, much of the instruction is centered on written exercises and judgments in small groups.
Summary
The program includes regular and advanced sessions for both English and French-speaking judges and is open to all judges. Newly appointed judges mainly register for the course within their first year or two of appointment. A set of documentation is handed out at the seminar as reference material. Participation of international members of the judiciary proves the quality of this program.
The CIAJ Judgment Writing Seminar is a four-day functionally bilingual seminar for judges who wish to improve their understanding of the principles of effective judgment writing and their ability to put them into practice. The program, intended for judges, includes plenary sessions, small-group workshops and substantial time devoted to the drafting of a judgment in a simulated case.
Members of the judiciary benefit from this seminar by learning and improving their writing skills. They receive expert feedback from our teams, each of which is comprised of a writing instructor and an experienced judge.