Podcasts of Argument

Thanks to BeSpacific, I’ve learned that the U.S. 7th Circuit federal court of appeal is making oral arguments available by podcast. The link in BeSpacific to the court page is borked“Irretrievably broken”: Urban Dictionary. It should be: http://www.ca7.uscourts.gov/ca7_rss.htm. The RSS feed comes in two flavours: standard audio podcast and “iTunes optimized.”

I chose the latter and popped it into iTunes. Nine oral arguments were included in the package for the ninth of August. I listened to the first, USA v. Sergio Arcuri, a criminal case. Poor Mr. Holsinger (sp?), counsel for the appellant. He was either ill-prepared or simply not cut out for appellate work. At one minute fifty two seconds the court says, “Well, what’s your argument. I don’t understand.” Counsel starts to explain. Court: “Well so what? What’s your legal argument?” Counsel utters five words. Cour (impatiently): “Yes, but that’s not a legal argument because it’s not required. You must have something better for us.” Five of the longest seconds that there are now ensue. Counsel: “Your honor, I do not have anything more than what’s in my brief.” This is at two minutes 20 seconds into the hearing. And so it goes. In less than six minutes, the other side has argued and the court retires.

There’s a kind of horrific frisson you get listening to this. Schadenfreude, perhaps too, but certainly a sweaty relief that the poor tongue-tied advocate is not you. These should be required listening for all law students and, indeed, every lawyer who has the chutzpah to imagine that appellate litigation is something to be attempted. (Reading transcripts, though more valuable maybe for preparing memoranda, just doesn’t give the same cautionary whack as hearing how it actually went down. And though some U.S. Supreme Court arguments are available in audio at Oyez, very few lawyers will ever have the dubious honour of going to D.C.; so circuit court arguments are valuable, I think.)

It goes almost without saying that I think our appellate courts, including the Supreme Court, should make oral arguments available in this format. Something for counsel commuters to listen to on their iPod equipped sound systems as they head in to the city.

UPDATE (later that same day):

I’ve just seen Library Boy’s post of yesterday:

Ontario Attorney General Michael Bryant recommends that cameras be allowed in some courts in the province. This would include TV cameras.

The list of Courts would cover the Ontario Court of Appeal and lower courts where no witnesses would be examined.