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Advocacy Training

Advocacy practice for students and pupils

Argue it aloud, before a judge who answers back.

Read a full set of case papers, then make your submissions aloud in a live spoken hearing. The judge has read the papers too, interrupts, presses the weak points and rules. Your transcript and feedback follow within minutes.

Sign in to startHow it works

Places are by invitation during the beta. If you have an account or an invitation, sign in with a code sent to your email address. To ask for an invitation, email chris@lextrapolate.com.

Crown Court

Bail application after refusal

Illustration of a practice bail application: eleven minutes forty-eight seconds left on the clock, three tiles for you as counsel for the defendant, the judge, who is speaking, and the prosecution, with a caption of the judge’s question.

What you can practise

Criminal, civil and employment exercises. Every party, paper and fact is fictitious.

  • Bail and sentence

    Renewed bail applications, pleas in mitigation, Newton hearings and appeals against sentence. The judge has the antecedents and the pre-sentence report, and asks why your client deserves the course you propose.

  • Evidence applications

    Hearsay, bad character and submissions of no case to answer, for the prosecution and the defence. You have to put the statutory test and apply it to the papers.

  • Witnesses

    Examination-in-chief of a witness who will not come up to proof, cross-examination on identification and of a dismissing manager, and ground rules for a vulnerable witness.

  • Civil and employment

    Summary judgment, an urgent injunction without notice, setting aside judgment, consequentials, a renewed permission application in judicial review and a rule 3(10) hearing in the EAT.

How a session runs

  1. Take the brief

    Choose an exercise, from foundation to advanced. Read the papers; highlight, note and pin what matters.

  2. Choose your judge

    Courteous, brisk or short-tempered. In a contested hearing, your opponent replies.

  3. Make your submissions

    A live spoken hearing in your browser. The judge interrupts, presses the weak points and holds you to time.

  4. Read your report

    Feedback on what you argued and how you said it, with the full transcript to check it against. Download both.

You need a laptop with Chrome or Edge, headphones and a quiet room. A hearing takes about fifteen minutes.

How the feedback works

Every word comes back to you

A transcript of the whole hearing, with a delivery analysis: pace, pauses, hesitations and how long you took to answer the bench.

One point that matters most

The report identifies the key failure using the Hampel method, quotes you to yourself, and shows what a better answer would have sounded like.

Then argue it again

Take the passage the report flags and argue it again, better. That is how the skill builds.

Pricing

One student plan, with the whole catalogue. Chambers, firms and law schools can take group licences for pupils, trainees and cohorts.

Ask about a group licence

Student

£35

a month, VAT included

  • The full exercise catalogue: criminal, civil and employment
  • Live spoken hearings with your choice of judge
  • Transcripts, feedback reports and delivery analysis
  • Cancel from your account at any time
Subscriptions open shortly: ask to be told

The address is chris@lextrapolate.com.

What this is, and what it is not

A practice hearing is a live simulation. The judge hears what you say and responds as you speak; no one takes part or listens in. It is a place to be bad, repeatedly and in private, which is how you get good. Transcripts may be reviewed afterwards to improve the product.

The cases are fictitious, and you must never speak real client information into a session. No raw audio is kept: your words are transcribed for the hearing, and you can delete your transcripts and reports from your account.

The beta terms set out what is kept and why.

Advocacy Trainer