Legal Dictionary of Pakistan

oral argument

An advocate's spoken presentation before a court (esp. an appellate court) supporting or opposing the legal relief at issue. "[T]he oral argument is the one chance for you (not for some chance-assigned mere judge) to answer any questions you can stir any member of the court into being bothered about and into bothering with, and the one chance to sew up each such question into a remembered point in favor .... In any but freak situations, oral argument is a must." Karl N. Llewellyn, The Common Law Tradition: Deciding Appeals 240 (1960).