Chapter 10
Judgments: Questions of Fact
10.1 Introduction
10.2 Writing the Judgment
10.3 Managing the Information
If a judge “is worthy of the robe he wears, the manner and method of his coming to a
judgment matter to him supremely”
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He has “no wish to look beyond what Conrad
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called ‘the prosaic severity of the daily task . . . whose only reward is the perfect love of
the work’” and like Maitland,
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without explaining why other grapes are sour he can say
that what grapes he has are sweet.”
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10.1 Introduction
This chapter describes the method or technique for writing a judgment on a question of
fact. As an adjunct, it proposes a means of organising and managing the information
before the court in a manner that facilitates the writing of clear and timely judgment.
10.2Writing the Judgment
Introduction
“Write that down” the King said to the jury, and the jury eagerly wrote down all three
dates on their slates, and then added them up, and reduced the answers to shillings and
pence.
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Writing a judgment that settles questions of fact utilises the model for litigation as a
framework.
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It builds on the model for litigation to create a model for proving facts.
Overall Structure
Essentially the overall structure of the judgment is derived from the structure of the
method that was used to decide the case. This overall structure has two layers – the model
for litigation and the model for proving facts.
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Kitto (1992) p 799
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Joseph Conrad Lord Jim Blackwood, Pocket edition, p 8
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Letters of FW Maitland, Fifoot, Selden Society, p 323
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Kitto (1992) p 799
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Lewis Carroll Alice in Wonderland Chapter 11
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Chapter 4 Overall Structure of a Text, Christopher Enright (2008) Legal
Method www.legalskills.com.au
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Chapter 4 Overall Structure of a Text
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