Moving a motion may appear to be very simple yet so technical; there are some basic things you need to put in place to get you ready to move your Motion in Court.
1. Study your Application thoroughly: The Judge may want to ask you questions that will help him understand your Application better. You may need to make necessary explanations where the Judge appears to be lost, confused or where you need to convince the Court on why it should grant your Application.
2. Think of possible events and prepare yourself accordingly: As Matthew Burkaa will say, "you may go to Court for A and B will happen". Be ready for Both A,B,C and D even Z.
3. Believe in yourself: Be confident; knowing the facts of your case and application is a confident booster on its own. This Booster gets you ready for any possible question.
4. Beware of ITKs: The only time you can resort to the suggestion of a second party is only when you are left with no single clue. If you need any clarification ask the Judge directly, to avoid confusion.
THE PROPER WAY TO MOVE A MOTION.
Suppose you have an application, brought by way of a motion on notice.
As a Claimant/ Applicant’s counsel, you announce your appearance first, suppose you are the Defendant/Respondent's Counsel, you will announce your appearance after the Claimant (s).
If it is an Application brought by way of Motion Exparte you are most likely going to be the only Counsel in the matter and this means you will announce your appearance and proceed with the necessary events that follow.
So let's assume today you are the Claimant/Respondent's Counsel and your matter is slated for hearing of the motion.
The moment your case is called and attendance of parties are registered, you will stand up and announce your appearance:
My Lord, I am Hope Kesmen appearing for the Claimant/Applicant.
Then wait for the Other Counsels to announce their appearance.
After which you will stand up and inform the Court thus:
This case is slated for hearing of Pending Applications and we are ready to proceed.
With the kind permission of this Court we will proceed to move this application.
My Lord will give a response for you to proceed or not to proceed. If to proceed you go ahead and read it out to the Court.
My Lord, before this Honourable Court is an application brought by way of Motion On Notice, dated ............2019 and filed ......... 2019. The application is brought pursuant to (state the rules as endorsed on the face of the motion paper) Order..... Rule ..... and Order ..... rule ....... of rules of this Honourable Court. (Federal High Court Civil Procedure Rules 2009) and under the inherent jurisdiction of this Honourable Court.
The application prays the Honourable Court for an order of this Honourable Court to (State your prayers as endorsed on the Motion Paper)
And for such further order(s) that this honourable Court may deem fit to make in the circumstance.
The application is supported by an 11 paragraph Affidavit dated ............, 2019 deposed to by .............. We are placing heavy reliance on all the paragraphs of the same affidavit. (If there are exhibits in the affidavits state it) The affidavit has 2 annexture to it marked as Exhibit A and Exhibit B (state the relevance of the Annexture ) showing.........
Furthermore, the application is supported by a written address dated ....... 2019. We adopt same as our brief of argument in this application and urge the Court to treat it accordingly.
We hereby move the application as par the motion paper and humbly urge the Court to grant the application.
BY WAY OF ADUMBRATION
The main issue of the application is whether this Court ought not to grant the Applicant’s application or not? As has been succinctly dealt in our brief of argument, the court can grant such an application where:
(List it out as endorsed on your Written address)
This Court is empowered by Order... rule .... of rules of this Honourable Court to grant this application. (State the law that empowers the Court to grant the application which is endorsed on the face of the motion paper).
And provide any other necessary explanations or answer My Lord's questions if any and urge my Lord to grant the application.
(Note that adumbration is not required of in all cases)
MOVE IN TERMS OF THE MOTION
The Judge may ask you to "Move in Terms.." if so then you simply say:
I move in terms of the Motion Paper.
N.B: When you have a counter-Affidavit to your application filed by a respondent. You should let the respondent argue their counter-Affidavit first before you adopt your reply address.
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